FTW84LA003 · Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Curtis Field (BBD) to 89R · Spring, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW84LA003
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2541Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Curtis Field (BBD), Brady, TXTo 89R · Spring, TX
- 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, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Fatigue
- Manufacturer › Inadequate quality control
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE AT 8,500 FT MSL THE ENG QUIT. A NIGHT EMERGENCY LANDING WAS MADE AT AN ARPT THAT THE ACFT HAD JUST FLOWN OVER. ON FINAL APPROACH THE PLT COULD NOT SEE THRU THE WINDSHIELD VERY WELL DUE TO OIL BUILDING UP ON THE WINDSHIELD. THE PLT HELD THE GEAR UP UNTIL A LANDING ON THE RWY WAS ASSURED. AFTER CROSSING A ROAD IN FRONT OF THE RWY THE PLT STARTED THE GEAR DOWN. THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT TIME FOR THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR & NOSE GEAR TO LOCK IN THE DOWN POSITION. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN 366 FT BEYOND THE THRESHOLD. ENG TEARDOWN & METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE #4 CONNECTING ROD HAD FAILED DUE TO FATIGUE. SEM VIEWING OF THE ORIGIN AREA REVEALED A SINGLE FATIGUE INITIATION SITE AT A CHANGE IN CONTOUR ON THE FLANGE END. THE IRREGULAR CONTOUR WAS NOT FOUND AT THE OTHER 3 FLANGE ENDS. ALSO, OXIDE INCLUSIONS & FORGING DEFECTS WERE FOUND ALONG THE ORIGINAL ROD SURFACE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW84LA003
- Event ID
- 20001214X44832
- Case number
- FTW84LA003
- 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 1983-10-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8d56174a8df2739d945c003f559a53302dcdc42e441d912f4ce49f6c3a26faec; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:16:21.316Z.