Coastal Planes Airways Piper PA-32-260 accident
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Moore County Airport (SOP) to RGD · Thomaston, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA110
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N390G
- Operator
- Coastal Planes Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moore County Airport (SOP), Southern Pines, NCTo RGD · Thomaston, GA
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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)
- 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
- Miscellaneous › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THE ENG ABRUPTLY LOST ALL POWER DURING CRUISE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES DURING A FORCED LNDG AT NIGHT & BOTH WINGS WERE TORN OFF. AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THAT THE CRANKSHAFT GEAR BOLT WAS LOOSE, AND THAT THE GEAR ALIGNMENT DOWL WAS SHEARED, WHICH HAD RESULTED IN A LOSS OF ENG GEAR TRAIN CONTINUITY. A METALLURGICAL EXAM REVEALED THE DOWEL PIN HAD FAILED FROM FATIGUE. ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR'S MECHANIC, THE ENG HAD EXPERIENCED A SUDDEN STOPPAGE DUE TO A PROP STRIKE ABOUT 151 OPERATING HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. LYCOMING SERVICE BULLETIN #465 OUTLINED MANDATORY INSPECTION, MODIFICATION, AND ASSY PROCEDURES FOR THE CRANK GEAR TO BE COMPLIED WITH DURING OVHL, AFTER A PROP STRIKE OR WHEN EVER GEAR TRAIN REPAIR IS REQUIRED. ACCORDING TO THE MECHANIC, THE BULLETIN WAS NOT COMPLIED WITH AFTER THE PROP STRIKE.
Probable cause
FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE CRANKSHAFT DOWEL PIN. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: FAILURE OF MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL TO FOLLOW THE APPLICABLE SERVICE BULLETIN AND DARKNESS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA110
- Event ID
- 20001213X27841
- Case number
- ATL89LA110
- 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 1989-03-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 98fe63f1d18daf770b9926f81f795b91bf0eb26664ed98516b8b829087b89216; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:13:13.687Z.