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MIA01LA164 · Broyles P51

16 Jun 2001 · Conestee, SC, United States

Broyles P51 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From Donaldson Field Airport (GYH) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
MIA01LA164
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
Unknown
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

Broyles P51

Aircraft type
Broyles P51
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
N251RB
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Donaldson Field Airport (GYH), Conestee, SCTo not recorded
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 · climb to 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
Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
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

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

A witness stated he observed the airplane on the take off roll. The engine did not sound like it was running correctly (missing sound). As the airplane became airborne the missing sound became worse. The airplane reached between 1,000 to 2,000feet when the right wing dropped. Another witness on a golf course stated the engine was spitting and sputtering before it became silent. The airplane appeared to be rocking back and forth and disappeared from view behind a tree line. A friend of the pilot stated he observed the airplane depart from the airport. A puff of black smoke was observed from the vicinity of the engine exhaust stack. The airplane continued to climb and more smoke was observed. The friend informed the pilot of the smoke and instructed him by radio to return to a closed runway. The airplane started a right 90 to 110 degree roll, and the nose dropped to the near vertical position before the airplane disappeared from view below the tree line and crashed. Examination of the airframe and flight controls revealed no evidence of a precrash mechanical failure or malfunction. Examination of the engine assembly revealed the No. 1cylinder intake and exhaust valves had signs of melted metal, and the push rods were bent. The No. 1 cylinder piston was heavily damaged and showed signs of detonation.

Probable cause

Partial loss of engine power due to an engine cylinder experiencing detonation resulting in a forced landing to none suitable terrain.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA01LA164
Event ID
20010622X01240
Case number
MIA01LA164
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: 51877a2706746c8110ab3d080e5d39ed5805a73f64fb36cd8aa4156f9aa344a8; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:30:30.398Z.