CHI02LA159 · Galbraith Piel Emeraude
Galbraith Piel Emeraude · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HSR) to Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HSR)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA159
- 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
Galbraith Piel Emeraude
- Aircraft type
- Galbraith PIEL EMERAUDE
- 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
- N71PE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HSR), Hot Springs, SDTo Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HSR), Hot Springs, SD
- 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The amateur-built aircraft sustained substantial damage when it impacted terrain following a loss of power and subsequent loss of control on initial climb. An eyewitness observed the aircraft takeoff and climb to approximately 200 - 300 feet agl. He reported that the aircraft made a sharp right turn and went nose down for one and a half turns before impacting the field. Another witness to the accident observed a white streak behind the airplane after takeoff. The witness reported that the aircraft appeared to turn back to the airport before the engine noise decreased and the airplane went nose down toward the ground. The number three cylinder was removed during an engine teardown and the connecting rod was found broken at the crank journal. The number three cylinder connecting rod sections and rod cap, including the connecting rod bolts and nuts, were submitted to NTSB Materials laboratory for examination. The two connecting rod sections located at the base of the rod caps exhibited fractures that had thumbnail shapes and arrest marks indicative of fatigue propogation.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to the connecting rod fatigue failure during takeoff climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA159
- Event ID
- 20020617X00902
- Case number
- CHI02LA159
- 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, coordinates. 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: a730c6b3f1810beab43a5a96e60cdc5b361a59aabcb5b46b4b1a499747427bfb; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:59:54.356Z.