SEA91LA217 · Beech B24R
Beech B24R · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR) to SHADY GROVE, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA91LA217
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech B24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N2528W
- Operator
- John G. Purdy · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR), Medford, ORTo SHADY GROVE, OR
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, oil › Leak
- Lubricating system, oil line › Loose
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Powerplant › Seized
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ON THE FIRST FLIGHT AFTER AN ANNUAL INSPECTION, THE PILOT WAS RETURNING HIS BEECH B24R TO ITS HOME BASE. HE NOTED THAT THE ENGINE WAS NOT DEVELOPING NORMAL RPM, AND HE ELECTED TO RETURN TO THE MAINTENANCE FACILITY. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ENGINE SEIZED. THE PILOT MADE A WHEELS-UP LANDING ON UNEVEN GRASSY TERRAIN, AND THE AIRCRAFT WAS DAMAGED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT AN OIL LINE, WHICH HAD BEEN REMOVED FOR MAINTENANCE, WAS LOOSE AND OIL HAD BEEN PUMPED OVERBOARD.
Probable cause
IMPROPER RE-INSTALLATION OF AN OIL LINE BY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, WHICH RESULTED IN AN OIL LEAK FROM A LOOSE LINE AND SUBSEQUENT SEIZURE OF THE ENGINE. UNEVEN TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA91LA217
- Event ID
- 20001212X17993
- Case number
- SEA91LA217
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-08-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6d28523901d8b6a02eecca36a2179c5618500f7d3a5c51b27ac62b2f3bf148f9; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:22:04.294Z.