IAD05LA033 · Ghiles MCR-01 VLA
Ghiles MCR-01 VLA · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Cincinnati Municipal Airport Lunken Field (LUK) to Butler Co Regional Airport - Hogan Field (HAO)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA033
- 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
Ghiles MCR-01 VLA
- Aircraft type
- Ghiles MCR-01
- 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
- N3085Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cincinnati Municipal Airport Lunken Field (LUK), Cincinnati, OHTo Butler Co Regional Airport - Hogan Field (HAO), Hamilton, OH
- 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
- Utility pole
- 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, connecting rod › Failure
- Lubricating system, oil hose › Collapsed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the cruise portion of the flight, the airplane experienced a total loss of engine power. The pilot was unable to restart the engine, and performed a forced landing to a roadway. During the landing, the left wing struck a utility pole. A post accident examination of the un-certificated engine revealed that it contained oil, and no leaks could be located in the lubrication system. The crankshaft could not be rotated by hand via the propeller. Further examination revealed that the #4 rod had separated from the crankshaft, and the #4 piston was jammed into the cylinder head. The oil pump was undamaged and did not indicate any type of failure mode. However, an oil hose was found to be kinked and exhibiting distance collapse of its shape. The engine manufacturer's operating manual stated in part, "Warning: Never fly the aircraft equipped with this engine at locations, airspeeds, altitudes, or other circumstances from which a successful no-power landing cannot be made after sudden engine stoppage." The manual further stated, "You should be aware that any engine may seize or stall at any time. This could lead to a crash landing and possible severe injury or death."
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to an oil hose collapse, which resulted in failure of the #4 connecting rod.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA033
- Event ID
- 20050119X00071
- Case number
- IAD05LA033
- 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: e342142db0b3cd0c2d72ddee2247715f989687a5cc2b0cac07a80747bd6fa845; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:21:23.313Z.