NYC02FA178 · Beechcraft 58P
Beechcraft 58P · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN) to Yeager Airport (CRW)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02FA178
- 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
- 7 · 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
Beechcraft 58P
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N6688D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN)To Yeager Airport (CRW), Charleston, WV
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The six-passenger airplane arrived at the departure airport with a malfunctioning landing gear system. Due to lack of maintenance personnel, the pilot elected to conduct the accident flight with the landing gear extended. The airplane departed with seven occupants, near the certified gross weight. Witnesses observed the airplane flying about 200-300 feet above the ground, with its engines "sputtering and backfiring." The airplane made a left turn towards the airport, descended, and came to rest in a wooded area about 2 miles southeast of the airport. Examination of the right engine revealed the propeller was not feathered, and the number 5 cylinder head was fractured about 3/4 inch from the bottom of the upper portion of the head. A fatigue fracture initiated in the root radius of the cylinder head thread that engaged with the top thread on the cylinder barrel. Indentations and displaced material on the upper and lower flanks of the cylinder head threads matched with the locations of protruding material observed on the cylinder barrel threads. The protruding material was located on the flank/crown radius of the threads, and was consistent with the folding over of a burr into the thread, originating during the manufacturing process. The number 5 cylinder assembly consisted of a new cylinder head that had been installed on a remanufactured barrel. The right engine was remanufactured in 2001, and had accumulated about 140 total hours of operation since. According to 14 CFR Part 91.7, "No person may operate a civil aircraft unless it is in an airworthy condition. The pilot in command of a civil aircraft is responsible for determining whether that aircraft is in condition for safe flight. The pilot in command shall discontinue the flight when unairworthy mechanical, electrical, or structural conditions occur." According to 14 CFR Part 91.107, "...each person on board a U.S.-registered civil aircraft must occupy an approved seat or berth with a safety belt...during movement on the surface, takeoff, and landing." According to the Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3), Transition to a Multiengine Airplanes, "When one engine fails on a multiengine airplane, performance is not halved, but is reduced by approximately 80 percent."
Probable cause
**This report was modified on 2/24/2016. Refer to the public docket for this accident for additional information.**
the pilot's improper preflight planning and his decision to depart with known landing gear system mechanical deficiencies, which resulted in a forced landing during a partial loss of power on one engine. Factors related to the accident were the fatigue failure of an engine cylinder barrel, the inadequate manufacturing process of the cylinder barrel, and the pilot's inability to retract the landing gear.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02FA178
- Event ID
- 20020916X01608
- Case number
- NYC02FA178
- 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: bf6bbdbf7b2f6e619d5c2177fef28e0d2345a2d397ecef5c7407babe81363dae; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:53:27.062Z.