Air Continental Piper PA-60-600 accident
Piper PA-60-600 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Cincinnati Municipal Airport Lunken Field (LUK) to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88FA052
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-60-600
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-60
- 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
- N500TS
- Operator
- Air Continental
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Cincinnati Municipal Airport Lunken Field (LUK), Cincinnati, OHTo Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), Cleveland, OH
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Separation
- Engine assembly, other › Fatigue
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, major repair, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED LOUISVILLE, KY REPORTEDLY WITH A KNOWN OIL LEAK IN THE RIGHT ENGINE AND WAS ON THE SECOND LEG OF AN ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI CARGO FLIGHT. ABOUT 14 MINUTES AFTER ENTERING MANSFIELD APPROACH CONTROL AIRSPACE, THE PILOT REQUESTED AND RECEIVED AN ALTITUDE CHANGE FROM 5,000 TO 3,000 FT BECAUSE HE 'WAS PICKING UP A LOT OF ICE.' AFTER ENTERING CLEVELAND APPROACH AIRSPACE HE REPORTED THE RIGHT ENGINE HAD FAILED AND REQUESTED TO RETURN TO MANSFIELD. THE PILOT WAS INFORMED OF MANSFIELD WEATHER. HE THEN INDICATED HE WANTED TO TRY CLEVELAND, THEN REPORTED HE COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND WANTED TO GO TO MANSFIELD. THE PILOT WAS RECEIVING VECTORS FROM MANSFIELD FOR AN ASR APPROACH TO RUNWAY 23 AND AT ABOUT 1 1/2 MILES FROM THE THRESHOLD THE PILOT REPORTED HE WAS LOWERING THE LANDING GEAR. THE AIRCRAFT THEN DISAPPEARED FROM THE RADAR SCOPE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED IMPROPER WELD REPAIRS TO THE RIGHT ENGINE CASE AND SEPARATION OF THE NUMBER SIX CYLINDER FROM THE CASE DUE TO FATIGUE CRACKING IN THE THROUGH BOLTS AND STUDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88FA052
- Event ID
- 20001213X32649
- Case number
- ATL88FA052
- 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 1987-12-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1dbf077c3736adeac18cbe5ac03d6228e552e529b4a274768f8f96c91b6f511e; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:34:51.317Z.