CHI02FA177 · Piper PA-28R-200
J.S. Aviation DBA Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Porter County Municipal Airport (VPZ) to Chamberlain Municipal Airport (9V9)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02FA177
- 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
- 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
Piper PA-28R-200
- 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
- N76SA
- Operator
- J.S. Aviation DBA
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Porter County Municipal Airport (VPZ), Vaparaiso, INTo Chamberlain Municipal Airport (9V9), Chamberlain, 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
- 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, cylinder › Separation
- Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane sustained substantial damage during a forced landing to a soybean field. The pilot reported that while in cruise flight the engine shuttered and developed serious vibration. The pilot stated that "at 3,500 feet engine ejected right rear cylinder head. Cowling stayed hinged on left. Oil spray on windshield and fire on lower right of firewall." The pilot reported that he shut down the engine and "tried to make Staton Airport but had [to perform a] forced landing in bean field. Damaged right wing in forced landing." Inspection of the engine verified that the number three cylinder had separated during flight. The cylinder was never located and/or recovered. The number three piston and connecting rod had separated from the crankshaft and were located at the bottom of the engine compartment. All of the number three cylinder through bolts and case studs were fractured. Several of the through bolts and studs had fracture features that were consistent with fatigue. The remaining bolts and studs had fracture features that were consistent with overload.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the fatigue failure of several number three cylinder through bolts and case studs, which resulted in the separation of the number three engine cylinder. A factor contributing to the accident was the rough terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02FA177
- Event ID
- 20020701X01019
- Case number
- CHI02FA177
- 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: af1a000fda0a5b1e429afbf1d73b8416410bbd27efccd357d44a335505ae13ee; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:47:36.479Z.