CHI00LA154 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Flying Cloud Airport (FCM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA154
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N8189T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flying Cloud Airport (FCM)To 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
- Powerplant › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During initial climb after takeoff the engine crankshaft failed, resulting in a engine failure. The flight instructor took control of the aircraft and executed a forced landing into a swamp. Post-accident investigation revealed that the engine crankshaft had failed between the number three bearing journal and the number three connecting rod journal. According to the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory Factual Report, the fracture surface, on the forward piece of the crankshaft, "...appeared relatively smooth with curving crack arrest lines, features typical of fatigue." The report stated, "Fracture features for the fatigue region emanated from an origin...at the surface of the aft radius of the third main journal...." The factual report indicated that the fatigue cracking progressed through more than 80-percent of the check prior to the final separation. The factual report further added that that the inner and outer diameter surfaces of the number three main bearing halves were circumferentially rubbed. The report states, "One edge of each of these bearing halves was rubbed and worn in the approximate shape of the journal radius. In addition, the antirotation tabs for these bearing halves were worn away from the outside diameter surface." The factual report indicated that the number four main bearing halves were deformed and the inner diameter surface was gouged. The report states, "Also, some slight circumferential rubbing marks were observed on the inner diameter surface of the number 1 and 2 main bearing halves. No evidence of heat tinting was noted on any of the bearing halves."
Probable cause
the failure of the engine and the unsuitable terrain for landing encountered by the pilot-in-command. Factors to the accident were the fracture of the crankshaft due to fatigue, excessive main bearing wear, and the swampy terrain condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA154
- Event ID
- 20001212X21174
- Case number
- CHI00LA154
- 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: f5f0546dce489dedffeabf63bae4eba8f37af154104a389c002f13b9fca55972; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:12:20.285Z.