ANC00FA056 · Beech B24R
Beech B24R · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC00FA056
- 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
- N6951R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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 · descent
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, inadequate
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Separation
- Engine assembly, other › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The first pilot, a certificated flight instructor, was providing flight instruction to the second pilot, a certificated private pilot. While returning to the airport, during the initial descent, the engine began to run rough, and lose power. The roughness improved momentarily, followed by a severe engine vibration, a loud bang, and complete loss of engine power. During a forced landing in a densely populated neighborhood, the airplane struck a power line, veered to the right, collided with the street, and came to rest in the front yard of a daycare center. Examination of the engine revealed the number 3 cylinder was broken free at the crankcase-mounting flange. A metallurgical examination of the number 4 position crankcase thru-bolt showed signs of fatigue cracking that emanated from the thread root. In addition, the cylinder flange mating surface displayed signs of fretting damage consistent with relative movement between the cylinder and the crankcase. The operator's director of maintenance stated that about 40 hours before the accident, he repaired a substantial oil leak between the number 3 cylinder, and the engine crankcase. He said that in the process of the repair he removed the number 4 position crankcase thru-bolt nut, applied an engine sealant, reinstalled the through bolt nut, and torqued the nut in accordance with the Lycoming overhaul manual. There was no engine log book entry pertaining to the engine total time, aircraft total time, or date when this repair was accomplished.
Probable cause
A fatigue failure of the crankcase through bolt, the separation of number 3 cylinder assembly, and the inadequate maintenance/service of the airplane by company maintenance personnel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC00FA056
- Event ID
- 20001212X20931
- Case number
- ANC00FA056
- 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: a12a71d3ff0ec49a439858558b170a1059cc0e7cee82b4808eba3dc0e0760a77; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:54:40.172Z.