MKC86LA175 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL) to Salina Municipal Airport (SLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC86LA175
- 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
- Instrument 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
- N3442W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), Fort Collins, COTo Salina Municipal Airport (SLN), Salina, KS
- 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 · 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)
- 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
- Engine assembly, push rod › Failure, total
- Manufacturer › Material defect
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not possible
- Terrain condition › Ditch
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT BEFORE THE FLIGHT THE SPARK PLUGS WERE CLEANED AND INSPECTED AND THE ENGINE WAS SERVICED WITH ELEVEN QUARTS OF OIL. THREE HOURS INTO THE FLIGHT INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC) WITH RAIN WAS ENCOUNTERED AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE OIL PRESSURE DROPPED TO ZERO AND THE ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH, ACCORDING TO THE PILOT. THE ENGINE WAS SECURED, AN EMERGENCY WAS DECLARED, AND A DESCENT UNDER IMC WAS INITIATED WITH VECTORS FROM KANSAS CITY ARTCC, THE PILOT FURTHER STATED. BUT UPON BREAKING OUT OF THE CLOUDS, THE ONLY LANDING AREA AVAILABLE WAS A ROLLING PASTURE WITH A DRAINAGE DITCH ACROSS THE LANDING PATH. POST-ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED OIL STARVATION DUE TO FAILURE OF THE NUMBER SIX PUSHROD AND DAMAGE TO THE CRANKCASE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC86LA175
- Event ID
- 20001213X34575
- Case number
- MKC86LA175
- 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: 39bcb5f50dc02624186d8b791289a1034d6d6ad6b25c46de2c2b33f126fcad85; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:04:58.014Z.