LAX89FA307 · Aero Commander 680FLP
Aero Commander 680FLP · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA) to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA307
- 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
- 1 · 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
Aero Commander 680FLP
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 680
- 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
- N22LR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA)To Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HI
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kailua-Kona, HI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AS THE ACFT WAS DEPG FM RWY 17, SMOKE WAS OBSERVED COMING FM THE RGT ENG. THE PLT CONFIRMED A LOSS OF PWR & MADE A RGT TURN BACK TOWARD THE RWY, THEN RPRTD HE HAD 'LOST BOTH ENGINES.' THE ACFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DMGD DURING A LNDG ON ROUGH, ROCKY TRRN ABT 1/4 MI SW OF THE RWY THRESHOLD. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ACFT HAD JUST CHANGED OWNERSHIP. DURING PRE- PURCHASE INSPN IN FLORIDA, METAL PARTICLES WERE FND IN THE OIL SCREENS OF BOTH ENGS. OIL WAS CHGD & FLUSHED, BUT METAL PARTICLES WERE FND AFTER ANOTHER ENG RUN. IN MAY 1989, THE RGT ENG WAS REPLACED WITH AN ENG FM ANOTHER ACFT. THE ACFT WAS FLOWN TO OAKLAND, CA, WHERE IT WAS PAINTED & NEW INTERIOR WAS INSTALLED. A LCL MECH NOTED METAL PARTICLES IN BOTH ENG OIL SCREENS & RCMNDD OIL ANALYSIS, BUT FERRYING PLT REFUSED. AFTER FLT TO HAWAII, NO OIL STAIN NOTED ON FUSELAGE BFRFLT ON 9/9/89. EXAM OF WRECKAGE REVEALED BOTH ENGS FAILED FM DETONATION. HVY OIL STREAKS FND BHND RGT ENG, SOME STREAKS OF OIL FND BHND LEFT ENG. RGT ENG CRANKSHAFT/ROD BRG SURFACE WAS 0.010' UNDER STANDARD, BUT ROD BRGS WERE STANDARD SIZE.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE, AND OPERATION BY THE PILOT WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES IN THE AIRCRAFT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: EXCESSIVE WEAR IN BOTH ENGINES, IMPROPER USE OF POWERPLANT CONTROLS BY THE PILOT, SUBSEQUENT OVERTEMPERATURE/DETONATION IN BOTH ENGINES, IMPROPER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES BY THE PILOT (INCLUDING PREMATURE GEAR EXTENSION AND/OR FAILURE TO PROPERLY REDUCE DRAG ON THE AIRCRAFT AFTER LOSS OF ENGINE POWER), AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN MULTI-ENGINE AND THIS MAKE AND MODEL OF AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA307
- Event ID
- 20001213X29401
- Case number
- LAX89FA307
- 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 1989-09-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e165707a5d5cae95de1a74fcc6c718f76bb02df9c4dd04fa917f639313c8c710; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:09:39.976Z.