Key Lime Air Piper PA-31-350 incident
Piper PA-31-350 · Incident: loss of engine power en route
From McCook Ben Nelson Regional Airport (MCK) to Goodland Municipal Airport (GLD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03IA069
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N9247L
- Operator
- Key Lime Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McCook Ben Nelson Regional Airport (MCK), McCook, NETo Goodland Municipal Airport (GLD), Goodland, KS
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The twin engine airplane operated under FAR Part 135 sustained minor damage during a forced landing to a field after a partial loss of power to both engines during cruise flight. The destination airport was about 70 miles from the takeoff airport. The pilot reported that while climbing through 5,600 feet msl, the right engine started running rough. The right engine's manifold air pressure (MAP) eventually dropped to 18 inches. He did not secure the right engine since it was still producing some power, but he increased the left engine's MAP to 35 inches to compensate for the loss of power on the right engine. He reported the airplane was approximately 25-30 miles from the departure airport, but the pilot continued the flight to the destination airport. Approximately 20 miles from the destination airport the left engine began running rough and the left engine's MAP quickly dropped to 18 inches of MAP. The pilot executed a forced landing to a field about nine miles from the destination airport. He reported, "Assured that I could not make the airport, I secured both engines. Simultaneously, [I] selected the best landing site I could see." The pilot lowered the landing gear after securing both engines. The airplane landed in the middle of a field and the landing gear collapsed during rollout. The airplane skidded to a stop on its belly, receiving only minor damage. The airplane was lifted up on its main landing gear by a crane and it was towed to the airport. An inspection of the fuel system and engine revealed no anomalies. The fuel tanks contained fuel and no contamination was found. The left and right engines were started and an engine ground run revealed no anomalies on the left engine. The right engine ran normally except the right engine could only develop 30-32 inches of MAP. The oil line going to the right engine's waste gate differential control was capped off, and then the engine produced 40 inches of MAP. The FAA approved a ferry flight. The airplane departed and flew for 30 minutes in the local pattern prior to departing. The flight continued to Denver without incident or any engine anomalies. An uncontrolled airport with lighted runways was located 30 miles from the takeoff airport and 40 miles from the destination airport.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power to both engines for undetermined reasons, and the pilot's improper in-flight decision to not land at the nearest available airport.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03IA069
- Event ID
- 20030219X00238
- Case number
- CHI03IA069
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-02-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 913a2f51acd774914372ca20ff1d19989389b38e34c0f21f0153c4a9ec1b5d7f; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:54:58.112Z.