LAX05LA172 · Republic RC-3
Republic RC-3 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS) to Lake Berryessa Seaplane Base (E20)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA172
- 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
Republic RC-3
- Aircraft type
- Republic RC-3
- 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
- N6292K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS), Santa Rosa, CATo Lake Berryessa Seaplane Base (E20), Lake Berryessa, 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
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after takeoff the engine lost power and the airplane nosed over during a gear up emergency landing in a vineyard. No discrepancies were noted with the run-up or initial climb out. About 7 miles into the flight, both the pilot and pilot/mechanic passenger noted a rise in oil temperature and a corresponding drop in oil pressure. The rear seat passenger heard "banging and clattering" coming from the engine during this time. The pilot attempted to make an alternate airport; however, a loud bang was heard, the engine lost power, and the pilot landed in a vineyard. The engine examination revealed that the number 1 connecting rod had separated and knocked a hole in the engine case. The connecting rod end cap contained deformation and bluing. The associated rod journal contained bearing transfer (a bronze/orange discoloration). Oil was in the engine case as well as on the outside of the engine cowling. Oil was drained from the oil sump, with metal debris found in the oil. The two sets of spark plugs for the number 1 and number 3 cylinders were oil sooted and contained foreign debris around the electrodes.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to failure of the number 1 connecting rod bearing due to a probable oil starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA172
- Event ID
- 20050601X00702
- Case number
- LAX05LA172
- 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: 50a84c35ed35841a5c6d9a35981e941f94d0602220a0c1c728a9166b5226b4b6; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:01:45.151Z.