SEA92LA007 · Piper PA24-180
Jenkins Aircraft Piper PA24-180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Skykomish State Airport (S88) to OS9 · Port Townsend, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA007
- 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 PA24-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA24
- 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
- N7759P
- Operator
- Jenkins Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skykomish State Airport (S88), Arlington, WATo OS9 · Port Townsend, WA
- 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 · climb to 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
- Accessory drive assembly, drive gear › Slipped
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PIPER PA 24 IMPACTED THE TERRAIN DURING A FORCED LANDING, AFTER A TOTAL ENGINE FAILURE ON CLIMBOUT. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE ACCESSARY DRIVE GEAR WAS LOOSE ON THE END OF THE CRANKSHAFT, AND WAS THEREFORE NOT DRIVING THE ACCESSARY SECTION. THE AIRCRAFT HAD EXPERIENCED A PROPELLER STRIKE AT AN EARLIER DATE, AND THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE TEXTRON LYCOMING SERVICE BULLETIN WERE NOT FOLLOWED WHEN THE REPAIRS WERE PERFORMED. THE BULLETIN CALLED FOR A NEW STYLE DRIVE GEAR AND GEAR RETAINING BOLT, BUT THE OLD STYLE PARTS WERE INSTALLED INSTEAD. ACCORDING TO LYCOMING, THE NEW PARTS MUST BE USED IN ORDER TO INSURE THAT THE GEAR SEATS ON THE CRANKSHAFT MOUNTING FACE, AND DOES NOT WORK LOOSE DURING ENGINE OPERATION.
Probable cause
THE SLIPPAGE OF THE ACCESSARY DRIVE GEAR DUE TO IMPROPER MAINTENANCE BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL. FACTORS INCLUDE A FORCED LANDING IN UNSUITABLE TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA007
- Event ID
- 20001212X18392
- Case number
- SEA92LA007
- 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: 27c955be2ca6b76bb9b5b2d6848b53a778d7c33027191b44d5b665ea5571fbbc; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:24:43.209Z.