NYC05LA074 · Beech A36TC
Beech A36TC · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Cuyahoga County Airport (CGF) to Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC05LA074
- 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
Beech A36TC
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N3810X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cuyahoga County Airport (CGF), Cleveland, OHTo Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD), Providence, RI
- 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
- Eng assembly, crankshaft counterweights/vib damper › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During taxi, runup, and takeoff, the pilot did not notice any anomalies with the engine, and the flight progressed without incident until about 90 miles short of the intended destination when the engine started to run rough for a few seconds before it stopped producing power. The windscreen became covered with oil, and the pilot executed an off airport forced landing, substantially damaging the airplane. External examination of the engine revealed three holes in the top of the engine case, and a crankshaft counter weight pin resting on top of the engine. Internal examination of the engine revealed heavy mechanical damage on the No. 5 counter weight, and the engine case in the vicinity of the No. 3 and No. 4 cylinders. Examination of the No. 5 counter weight assembly revealed that one of the two aft snap rings, plates, and pins were missing. The pin was located on top of the engine during the external examination, but neither the snap ring nor plate could be located. The fact that the engine was operated for approximately 16 hours since overhaul, along with the witness mark on the surface of the counter weight, suggested that the snap ring, plate, and pin were installed; however, it could not be determined if the snap ring was properly seated. A review of engine overhaul records revealed that on February 5, 2005, the counterweights, along with the pins, plates, and snap rings were installed on the crankshaft.
Probable cause
The failure of the counter weight aft snap ring to hold the associated plate and pin in place, which resulted in a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC05LA074
- Event ID
- 20050426X00507
- Case number
- NYC05LA074
- 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: 5052a76e9f0ef16fce8dc629015857c9ff2bff9e694d74e687ad5819f1f60874; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:02:32.541Z.