LAX04LA029 · North American T-28B

The airplane collided with trees during a forced landing following a loss engine power. Witnesses reported that smoke was trailing from the airplane just before it hit the trees. One witness said that the engine was sputtering, and he heard a couple of "bangs." As the airplane turned to line up with a clear landing area it clipped the tops of some trees and crashed on an embankment adjacent to a dirt road. The owner of a fixed base operator received flight instruction from the certified flight instructor (CFI) in the accident airplane immediately before the accident flight, and noted no mechanical discrepancies. Fifteen minutes later, witnesses watched the airplane takeoff on the accident flight, and reported that the airplane and engine looked and sounded normal. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector examined the wreckage on scene and found a significant amount of oil on the right side of the airplane aft of the firewall. The engine separated from the airplane, and came to rest about 15 feet upslope from the wreckage. He noted heavy oil deposits on the bottom cylinders and accessories; the top cylinders were clean. Oil coated the accessory section of the engine. The area around the pre-oil port fitting on the accessory section of the engine was saturated in oil, and the B-nut for that oil line to fitting connection was only finger tight. An examination of the engine revealed damage and thermal distress signatures consistent with an oil starvation catastrophic failure, with no oil present inside the engine. A maintenance logbook entry noted that maintenance technicians had replaced all flexible engine hoses 21 hours prior to the accident.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset