CHI92LA002 · Piper PA-12
Piper PA-12 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Hoerr Restricted Landing Area (6IL0) to 47C · Boscobel, WI
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA002
- 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
Piper PA-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N2499M
- Operator
- Robert L. Rex · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hoerr Restricted Landing Area (6IL0), Genoa, ILTo 47C · Boscobel, WI
- 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
- Partial 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
- Ignition system, magneto › Deteriorated
- Ignition system, magneto › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PILOT EXPERIENCED A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND WAS ATTEMPTING A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WHEN ENGINE QUIT TOTALLY. PILOT MADE FORCED LANDING IN CORN FIELD AND NOSED OVER DURING LANDING ROLL. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT PILOT WAS FERRYING AIRCRAFT FOR OWNER WHO HAD JUST PURCHASED IT. NO LOG BOOKS COULD BE FOUND. IT COULD NOT BE DETERMINED WHEN LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION HAD BEEN PERFORMED. ENGINE INVESTIGATION DETERMINED THAT THE RIGHT MAGNETO WAS INOPERATIVE, AND THAT THE LEFT MAGNETO WAS DETERIORATED, AND WOULD SHORT OUT AND FAIL WHEN IT WAS BROUGHT UP TO OPERATING TEMPERATURE. MAGNETO AD ISSUED IN 1973 HAD NOT BEEN COMPLIED WITH. THERE WAS NO RECORD OF ANY FERRY PERMIT REQUESTED.
Probable cause
OPERATION OF AN AIRCRAFT WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES AND DETERIORATION/FAILURE OF THE MAGNETO(S). FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE LACK OF AN ANNUAL INSPECTION AND NON-COMPLIANCE WITH AN AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE (AD).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA002
- Event ID
- 20001212X18262
- Case number
- CHI92LA002
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: df9c3f689d19ddb8b7dec2144c47c2abc852e79722b4109c42877a4b74c9ea70; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:24:55.704Z.