SEA92LA014 · Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Blanding Municipal Airport (BDG) to Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport (RKS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA014
- 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-28R-201T PA-28R-201
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N1087H
- Operator
- James J. Blount JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Blanding Municipal Airport (BDG), Blanding, UTTo Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport (RKS), Rock Springs, WY
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Engine assembly, piston › Burned
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE FLIGHT, ABOUT 5 MIN AFTER PASSING THE MONTICELLO AIRPORT, THE ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH. THE PILOT REVERSED COURSE TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT FOR A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. AS HE WAS TURNING ONTO BASE LEG, THE ENGINE STOPPED RUNNING. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT WAS DAMAGED DURING A FORCED LANDING ABOUT 50 YARDS SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. AN EXAM OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THERE WAS NO OIL IN THE CRANKCASE, A HOLE WAS BURNED IN THE #5 PISTON FROM PRE-IGNITION/DETONATION, THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF ARCING OF THE LEFT MAG AND CONTAMINATION IN THE RIGHT MAG, AND THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS IMPROPERLY ADJUSTED. THE ACFT HAD 88 HOURS OF FLIGHT TIME, SINCE A MAJOR OVERHAUL OF THE ENGINE WAS COMPLETED ON 7/12/91.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE/OVERHAUL OF THE ENGINE, AND SUBSEQUENT FAILURE OF THE #5 PISTON (HOLE BURNED IN PISTON), DUE TO PRE-IGNITION AND/OR DETONATION. ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA014
- Event ID
- 20001212X18398
- Case number
- SEA92LA014
- 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: ce07c2cccdd39a3a33f8d683a3496604555eb951cb545918989418099ecd8d12; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:35:25.575Z.