SEA03FA038 · Beech A23
Beech A23 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Roberts Field (RDM) to Chiloquin State Airport (2S7)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03FA038
- 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
Beech A23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N2392W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roberts Field (RDM), Redmond, ORTo Chiloquin State Airport (2S7), Chiloquin, OR
- 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 · descent
- 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, connecting rod cap › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during descent for landing, the engine started to "knock" and "shutter." About 15 seconds later a "significant noise" was heard and oil and smoke began to come out of the engine cowling. The pilot initiated a forced landing to an open field. During the landing roll, the aircraft traveled over a ditch, which sheared off the nose gear. During the post-accident engine inspection, oil was visible on the bottom engine cowling and oil was streaked along the bottom of the fuselage from the engine to the tail. A large hole was noted to the top left side of the crankcase as well as a hole in the bottom left side between cylinders two and four. The number two rod end cap was missing as well as the bolts and nuts. Severe heat distress was noted on the number two connecting rod end and to the associated crankshaft rod journal. All oil passages were clear. The number two bearing was missing. Fragments of connecting rod and bearing material was found in the oil sump. The remaining connecting rods were intact with no evidence of heat distress noted. All oil lines were intact and connections were tight. No evidence of an oil leak was noted.
Probable cause
The separation of the rod end cap from the connecting rod for an undetermined reason during the descent for landing. The ditch was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03FA038
- Event ID
- 20030211X00196
- Case number
- SEA03FA038
- 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: cf947db18228355e0f6df023a1a11b3f455fafbec39d988c209919b960dd6fef; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:36:51.972Z.