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BFO89LA005 · Piper PA-28R-200

29 Oct 1988 · Dover, DE, United States

Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From Bay Bridge Airport (W29) to Republic Airport (FRG)

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Event

NTSB case
BFO89LA005
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
N2074T
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Bay Bridge Airport (W29), Stevensville, MDTo Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NY
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 · climb to 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
Airframe, component or system 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
  • Lubricating system, oil line › Fatigue
  • Lubricating system, oil line › Not secured
  • Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AFTER TAKEOFF THE PLT BEGAN A CRUISE CLIMB TO 5500 FT. HE RPRTD THAT WHEN THE ACFT REACHED 5200 FT, HE NOTICED OIL SPRAYING FROM UNDERNEATH THE FRONT OF THE ENG COWLING. THE OIL EVENTUALLY COVERED THE WINDSCREEN. THE PLT DIVERTED TOWARD A NEARBY ARPT, BUT THE ENG BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH, SO HE OPTED TO LAND IN A FIELD. THE ENGINE QUIT DURING THE LNDG APCH. DRG THE LANDING ROLL, THE ACFT STRUCK A FENCE, DAMAGING THE WINGS & LEFT MAIN GEAR. EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT REVEALED THE PROP GOVERNOR OIL LINE HAD FRACTURED AT A BEND, NEXT TO WHERE IT CONNECTED TO THE GOVERNOR. TWO CLAMPS FOR SECURING THE OIL LINE WERE MISSING. THE OWNER RPRTD THAT THE GOVERNOR OIL LINE HAD BEEN REPLACED 41 OPERATING HRS BEFORE THE ACDNT. HE SAID THAT DRG THE EMERG LANDING, HE DID NOT SEE THE FENCE DUE TO OIL ON THE WINDSCREEN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO89LA005
Event ID
20001213X26996
Case number
BFO89LA005
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: e77abadb12b5c8349fccfd1010016aa78226636ebd1030eefb0278461e4fceb3; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:29:56.567Z.