DCA88MA011 · Piper PA-31-350
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA88MA011
- 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
- 6 · 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-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N496SC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AK
- 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
- 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)
- 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 › Failure, total
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD JUST DEPARTED THE RUNWAY WHEN HE REPORTED TO THE FLIGHT SERVICE STATION THAT HE HAD ENGINE PROBLEMS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED BY WITNESSES TO BE ABOUT 300 FT ON A DESCENDING DOWNWIND. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS CIRCLING FOR RUNWAY ONE. SURVIVING PASSENGERS DESCRIBED THE ENGINES AS RUNNING ROUGH AND UNEVEN. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE AIRCRAFT'S WEIGHT WAS MORE THAN THE PILOT HAD CALCULATED AND THE C.G. WAS 3.4 INCHES FURTHER AFT THAN WAS CALCULATED. HOWEVER, THE WEIGHT AND C.G. WERE WITHIN LIMITS.EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DISCLOSED THAT THE RIGHT ENGINE HAD AN EXTENSIVE CYLINDER HEAD CRACK, A PARTIALLY DISCONNECTED INTAKE PIPE, AND WAS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING 55% OF RATED POWER. THE LEFT ENGINE HAD SEVEN SEVERLY WORN CAM LOBES. THE RUDDER TRIM WAS DEFLECTED FULL LEFT AT IMPACT. THE EVIDENCEINDICATED THAT THE PILOT HAD RETARDED THE THROTTLE FOR THE LEFT ENGINE AND WAS USING ONLY THE RIGHT ENGINE TO SUSTAIN FLIGHT. EXAM OF COMPANY CHECKLIST USAGE REVEALED SEVERAL DIFFERENT IMPROPER VERSIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA88MA011
- Event ID
- 20001213X32680
- Case number
- DCA88MA011
- 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: 44fb1b5fb40e2f4c194d581613ff596d87d5ef9cb8df268e7d7a106dd34f9059; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:12:19.053Z.