ATL05LA007 · Piper PA-32RT-300T
Piper PA-32RT-300T · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From M33 · Gallatin, TN to Destin Executive Airport (DTS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL05LA007
- 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
Piper PA-32RT-300T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N19TL
- Operator
- Robert Thomas Webb
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M33 · Gallatin, TNTo Destin Executive Airport (DTS), Destin, FL
- 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)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, bearing › Failure
- Fluid, oil › Contamination
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During cruise flight the engine lost power, the pilot declared an emergency and decided to make a forced landing in a nearby field. While maneuvering for the emergency landing the airplane collided with a tree short of the intended landing area, fell to the ground, and burst into flames. Examination of the engine found no measurable quantity of oil remained in the sump, only residual oil remained, which was dark black in color. The crankcase was breached, and large holes in the crankcase were observed above the #2 and #6 cylinders. The internal components of the valve train were examined and widespread spalling of the tappet bodies was noted. Severe wear of the camshaft was also noted. Four of the nine cam lobes exhibited severe wear. The crankshaft main bearings exhibited dirt and particle embedment from metal particles contaminating the oil supply. According to a Service letter issued by Lycoming; Service Letter No. SL206A, dated May 5, 1985 which addresses the subject of field reconditioned tappet bodies, SL206A states that field reconditioned tappet bodies often leads to camshaft and tappet body problems in a very short time, thereby necessitating their removal and replacement. Severe wear or spalling of the cam lobes and tappet bodies can result in metal particles contaminating the oil supply.
Probable cause
Total loss of engine power due to engine oil contamination, engine oil starvation, and multiple connecting rod bearing failures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL05LA007
- Event ID
- 20041101X01729
- Case number
- ATL05LA007
- 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: 21afedce1772589bb81851db992d951ec627cebdf509377d130bc17b7780f485; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:11:49.456Z.