CHI90LA101 · Piper PA-28R-200
Griffith Aviation Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Griffith-Merrillville Airport (05C) to Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA101
- 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-200
- 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
- N4490X
- Operator
- Griffith Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Griffith-Merrillville Airport (05C), Griffith, INTo Indianapolis International Airport (IND), Indianapolis, IN
- 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
- 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
- Fluid, oil › Exhaustion
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, compliance with ad, improper
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, improper
- Propeller governor control › Fractured
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
INSTRUCTOR PILOT AND PRIVATE PILOT RATED STUDENT WERE ON AN INSTRUMENT CROSS COUNTRY TRAINING FLIGHT. PILOT EXPERIENCED ENGINE RPM SURGE OVER RED LINE, FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY BY SMOKE IN COCKPIT, AND OIL STREAMING OVER WINDSHIELD. PILOT REDUCED POWER, DECLARED EMERGENCY, AND ATC PROVIDED WIND STEER TO NEAREST AIRPORT. ENGINE SEIZED BEFORE PILOT MADE AIRPORT. PILOT EXECUTED FORCED LANDING IN SOFT FARMER'S FIELD. ALL LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED ON ROLLOUT. AIRCRAFT SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED, BOTH PIOTS RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES. INVESTIGATION REVEALED PROP GOVERNOR OIL LINE FRACTURED AT FORWARD ATTACHMENT NUT, AND BROKEN FORWARD OIL LINE SUPPORT CLAMP. AFT OIL LINE SUPPORT CLAMP WAS MISSING. MAINTENANCE RECORDS INDICATE AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE PERTAINING TOINSTALLATION AND END FITTINGS OF PROP GOVERNOR OIL LINE COMPLIED WITH 14 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE MISHAP.
Probable cause
ENGINE FAILURE DUE TO OIL STARVATION RESULTING FROM IMPROPER MAINTENANCE AND DIRECTIVE COMPLIANCE ASSOCIATED WITH THE FAILED PART.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA101
- Event ID
- 20001212X22690
- Case number
- CHI90LA101
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-03-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2d3e20506ea2dff102f5381df05b9153bf4daf02c1e5af6d5cf8e12b3b54f1e6; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:56:11.068Z.