CHI05CA032 · Olson Sonex
Olson Sonex · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Watertown Municipal Airport (RYV) to RYV
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05CA032
- 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
Olson Sonex
- Aircraft type
- Olson SONEX
- 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
- N478SX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Watertown Municipal Airport (RYV), Watertown, WITo RYV
- 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)
- 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, crankshaft › Fatigue
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Fractured
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, inspection, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The amateur-built airplane was damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power during cruise flight. The propeller and hub separated in-flight as result of a crankshaft failure. The airplane impacted a small ditch during the forced landing that resulted in the airplane nosing-over. The experimental airplane was powered by a non-certified Volkswagen 2180cc engine that was modified for aircraft use. The engine crankshaft was fractured between the oil-slinger and the retaining snap-ring groves. The fracture initiated at the aft edge of the forward keyway. The fracture features were consistent with a fatigue-type failure. The propeller and hub were not recovered during the investigation. The pilot/builder reported that he had mistakenly installed the number four (aft-most) bearing at the number two position during initial assembly of the engine. He had to remove the shrink-fit propeller hub, drive gears and spacer in order to reinstall the bearings in the correct order. The pilot/builder reported that he did not check the dimensions of the shrink-fit components prior to reassembling the engine, nor did he consult with the engine kit manufacturer on how to disassemble, inspect, and reassemble the engine components. The engine kit manufacturer did not provide the builder with engine disassembly or overhaul instructions with delivery of the engine kit. The engine kit manufacturer did not instruct builders to verify the dimensions of the shrink-fit components prior to their installation. The experimental airframe and engine did not have to comply with federal regulations required for a standard category airplane. The engine and airframe had accumulated 45.3 hours since new.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to a fatigue fracture of the crankshaft. An additional cause to the accident was the pilot/builder's failure to verify the dimensions of the shrink-fit crankshaft components prior reassembling the engine. A factor to the accident was the ditch encountered during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05CA032
- Event ID
- 20041217X02002
- Case number
- CHI05CA032
- 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: 26c86e368c603f9fb781d15a543d89af51c802b8664272cea41dcc12e1357238; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:10:46.180Z.