BFO88FA050 · Enstrom F-28A
Enstrom F-28A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Laneys Airport (N92) to Wilmington Airport (ILG)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO88FA050
- 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
Enstrom F-28A
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F-28
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N9209
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Laneys Airport (N92)To Wilmington Airport (ILG), Wilmington, DE
- 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
- Partial 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
- Tree(s)
- 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, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, AT AN ALT OF APRX 400 FT, A LOUD BANG WAS HEARD AND THE HELICOPTER DEVELOPED A MODERATE TO SEVERE VIBRATION. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER AND INITIATED AN AUTOROTATION. THE HELICOPTER CONTACTED SMALL TREE BRANCHES AND LANDED HARD IN A FIELD. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED THE #3 CYLINDER CONNECTING ROD CAP HAD SEPARATED FROM THE CONNECTING ROD. THE FATIGUE FAILURE INITIATED AT THE BOLT HOLE IN THE YOKE SECTION OF THE ROD. SEVERE GALLING WAS VISIBLE ON THE FAILED CONNECTING ROD CAP AND YOKE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO88FA050
- Event ID
- 20001213X25627
- Case number
- BFO88FA050
- 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 1988-05-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 684105c37c4ebcf525a25aa8e3fe9363c4709985cc15cd2a0de7d0d71d5b0ee9; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:11:52.997Z.