NYC05LA126 · Grumman G-164A
Grumman G-164A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Felton, DC (no airport) to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC05LA126
- 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
Grumman G-164A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-164
- 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
- N5495
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Felton, DC (no airport)To No airport
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, compliance with ad, 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
While returning to a private airstrip, the pilot heard a loud explosion from the engine. The engine lost all power, and the pilot performed a forced landing to a soybean field. During the landing, the right wing contacted the ground and the airplane came to rest inverted. The airplane was equipped with a Honeywell (Garrett) TPE331-43A turboprop engine. Examination of the engine revealed that the second stage turbine rotor was fractured, separated, and lodged in the back of the engine. The second stage turbine stator seal plate assembly exhibited warpage. The evidence was consistent with the warped second stage turbine stator seal plate contacting the second stage turbine rotor, causing the rotor to separate. Airworthiness directive (AD) 86-08-06 R1 pertained to the accident engine, and required an x-ray inspection of the second stage turbine stator seal plate assembly. The purpose of the AD was to detect and repair engines with second stage turbine stator seal plate assemblies that exhibited warpage. The last annual inspection of the airplane was performed about 4 months prior to the accident. According to the aircraft logbooks, the airframe and powerplant mechanic with an inspection authorization (IA) noted the AD as not applicable due to engine model number. However, the subject engine model number did require completion of the AD.
Probable cause
The mechanic's inadequate annual inspection, and failure to comply with an airworthiness directive, which resulted in a total failure of the second stage turbine rotor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC05LA126
- Event ID
- 20050804X01154
- Case number
- NYC05LA126
- 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: 634b30845e877c9abe13bbad9084681289bf2d1953986cd7d88c70cd8d5bfae4; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:33:38.957Z.