DEN06LA058 · Eldredge NXT
Eldredge NXT · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU) to Palmdale Regional Airport / USAF Plant 42 Airport (PMD)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN06LA058
- 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
Eldredge NXT
- Aircraft type
- Eldredge NXT
- 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
- N42XT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NMTo Palmdale Regional Airport / USAF Plant 42 Airport (PMD), Palmdale, 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Lubricating system, oil seal › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While cruising at an airspeed of 300 knots at an altitude of 12,500 feet, the airplane "hit a pocket of wind shear." Shortly thereafter, the pilot noticed smoke entering the cockpit. When the pilot noticed an increase in engine oil temperature, he reduced the engine power. The pilot attempted to locate an area to execute a forced landing and declared a "mayday" to air traffic control. In an attempt to reduce the smoke continuing to enter the cockpit, the pilot shut down the engine, and feathered the propeller. The smoke in the cockpit dissipated, and the pilot attempted a forced landing to a dirt runway. Due to oil on the windshield, the pilot's visibility was reduced during the approach and landing. During the landing, the airplane departed the dirt runway surface and impacted rocks and terrain. Examination of the engine revealed that the crankshaft oil seal was partially extruded at the six o'clock position. No additional anomalies were noted with the engine that would have precluded engine operation. The aircraft was equipped with a Christen air/oil separator. No evidence of improper installation was noted, and all of the lines were secure at their respective fittings. The separator was removed and the ball check valve within the separator was free to move and no obstructions were noted. An alternate warm air source (whistle slot) was located in the crankcase vent line and mounted on the left side of the firewall. The oil breather tube exited the airframe on the lower left side of the fuselage.
Probable cause
the loss of engine power due to the partial failure of the crankcase nose seal for undetermined reasons. A contributing factor was the pilot's diminished visibility during the forced landing due to oil on the windscreen, resulting in a runway excursion and subsequent impact with rocks and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN06LA058
- Event ID
- 20060412X00424
- Case number
- DEN06LA058
- 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: 5b960491eaf7df7f13c195fb3be78b545f831b36854e311c8f2f1d2e4324fca8; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:00:31.586Z.