LAX07LA058 · Cessna 152
Tailwind flight Centre Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Chandler Municipal Airport (CHD) to GEU
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX07LA058
- 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
Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N5295B
- Operator
- Tailwind flight Centre
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chandler Municipal Airport (CHD), Chandler, AZTo GEU
- 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
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Overtemperature
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while in cruise flight the airplane began to vibrate, which was followed by a loud "bang," and then a complete loss of engine power. He attempted to restart the engine, trimmed the airplane to attain best glide speed, and looked for a place to make an emergency landing. The touchdown was normal; however, on the landing rollout the nose landing gear collapsed and the airplane came to rest inverted. An inspection of the engine revealed that the number 3 cylinder connecting rod had broken at the crankshaft journal. Cracks in multiple locations were observed on the right side engine case. Various pieces from the engine were located in the oil sump, oil pump housing, and oil filter element. The number 3 connecting rod, piston, and cylinder were thermally discolored (black coloration). Complete teardown of the engine revealed that the crankshaft at the number 3 journal area exhibited signs of thermal discoloration and distortion. The other connecting rods and main bearings showed signs of adequate lubrication. There were no oil system related discrepancies noted. A review of the engine logbooks revealed normal routine maintenance, which included 50-hour oil changes and servicing.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power due to oil starvation to the number 3 cylinder crankpin and connecting rod bearing. The underlying cause of the oil starvation to the number 3 cylinder components could not be ascertained.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX07LA058
- Event ID
- 20070109X00024
- Case number
- LAX07LA058
- 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. 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: 22a604340864858345617d7e16ff7262f1ae223c7dcb56655b75b9658a804924; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:07:25.143Z.