LAX05LA042 · Piper PA-22-108
Piper PA-22-108 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Laughlin Bullhead International Airport (IFP) to Napa County Airport (APC)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA042
- 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-22-108
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N4913Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Laughlin Bullhead International Airport (IFP), Bullhead City, AZTo Napa County Airport (APC), Napa, CA
- 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
- Partial 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
- Fluid, oil › Exhaustion
- Lubricating system, oil seal › Failure
- Lubricating system, oil tubing › Improper
- Unknown › Maintenance, modification, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The main landing gear sheared from the airplane during a forced landing on rough, desert terrain. When the pilot was about 30 nautical miles from his destination, the oil pressure needle was pegged on the high side of the indicator. He closed the throttle, and the oil pressure appeared to return to normal. Then, the oil pressure needle fell to zero and the oil temperature began to rise. He prepared to land on a road; however, on short final he could not maintain directional control and alignment with the road due to a crosswind condition. He turned the airplane into the wind and landed in a desert field. Post accident examination revealed that the main crankshaft seal was extruded outward and oil was pumped out during the flight. Approximately 1.5 quarts of oil were drained from the engine prior to its teardown. The engine manufacturer's representative examined the engine crankcase, crankshaft nose seal, and breather tube on January 24, 2005. The seal bore exhibited witness marks indicating that the seal had been occupying the bore properly. In addition, the corresponding witness marks on the crankshaft where the seal had been in contact indicated that the seal had been positioned correctly. The engine breather tube extended from the firewall area, aft to the trailing edge of the right main landing gear strut, which was inconsistent with breather tube length. The breather tube did not have a whistle slot installed. The airplane was originally a show airplane. The breather tube was designed to drain in a way that would prevent oil and moisture from draining onto the airplane. However, due to its nonstandard design, the end of the tube was susceptible to icing. An edition of the Lycoming Flyer stated the following, in part: "Under very cold conditions, this moisture may freeze and continue a buildup of ice until the tube is completely blocked. It is normal practice for the airframe manufacturer to provide some means of preventing freeze-up of the crankcase breather tube. The breather tube may be insulated, it may be designed so the end is located in a hot area, it may be equipped with an electric heater, or it may incorporate a hole, notch or slot which is often called a "whistle slot." When a breather tube with whistle slot is changed, the new tube must be of the same design."
Probable cause
oil exhaustion due to an improper oil breather tube installation, which became plugged in flight due to frozen moisture build-up. The blocked breather tube then created a crankcase over pressure that caused a failure of the crankshaft seal. The rough, uneven terrain and strong crosswind were factors in the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA042
- Event ID
- 20041201X01900
- Case number
- LAX05LA042
- 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: e543aaa831cf5135aa507a8ae0d1f9889ec2b8e092618ab083c5fe6966b71c20; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:29:08.729Z.