LAX83FJA02 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) to Hilo International Airport (ITO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FJA02
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N56351
- Operator
- Joel Lambert Baker
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HITo Hilo International Airport (ITO), GEN. LYMAN FIEL, HI
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Loose
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Undertorqued
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ENG QUIT & THE PLT DITCHED IN THE OCEAN NEAR THE BEACH. THE #4 CONNECTING ROD SHANK WAS FOUND BROKEN AT THE CRANKPIN BEARING HOUSING. ONE ROD BOLT HEAD WAS BROKEN OFF & THE BOLT GRIP WAS NECKED DOWN. THE NUT ON THIS BOLT WAS STILL ON THE BOLT & FLUSH WITH THE THREADED END OF THE BOLT. THE OTHER BOLT & NUT WERE STILL ATTACHED TO THE CRANKPIN BEARING HOUSING HALVES WITH APPROXIMATELY THREE THREADS SHOWING BEYOND THE NUT. THE FOLLOWING TORQUE READINGS WERE NOTED ON THE CONROD BOLTS: #1 ROD UPPER & LOWER BOLTS - 660 INCH POUNDS; #2 ROD UPPER BOLT - 250 INCH POUNDS; #2 ROD LOWER BOLT - 300 INCH POUNDS; #3 ROD UPPER & LOWER BOLTS - 0 INCH POUNDS. REQUIRED TORQUE ON THESE BOLTS IS 480 INCH POUNDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FJA02
- Event ID
- 20020917X04803
- Case number
- LAX83FJA02
- 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: 4fd59841239dfcb9ce6e1640f59426a32b74978cc43dee22c4d146847ba5ed0f; retrieved 2026-09-24T00:04:21.212Z.