NYC08LA112 · Beech A36
C & S Aviation Beech A36 · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From Gwinnett County Briscoe Field (LZU) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA112
- 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 A36
- 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
- N623CQ
- Operator
- C & S Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gwinnett County Briscoe Field (LZU), Lawrenceville, GATo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/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
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Organizational issues › Management
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After takeoff on the first flight following a propeller overhaul, the airplane was leveled at 7,000 feet, and as the pilot and pilot-rated passenger discussed engine management, they noted the propeller rpm was high. They diverted to an alternate destination, and notified air traffic control (ATC). The propeller was adjusted but continued to overspeed. The pilot rated passenger managed engine and propeller rpm while the pilot flew the airplane at the manufacturer's best glide speed of 110 knots, but the engine continued to overspeed as the propeller provided no thrust. As propeller thrust and altitude decayed, the airplane descended through a cloud layer. When the airplane broke out beneath the cloud layer, the pilot selected a field for a forced landing area due to the fact that the surrounding terrain was wooded. Upon touchdown, the airplane bounced, the nose gear collapsed, and the airplane skidded to a stop. The pilot and pilot rated passenger stated that prior to the accident flight an annual inspection was completed and a newly overhauled propeller was installed. Disassembly of the propeller system after the accident revealed the rear pitch change rod bushing separated from the rear hub half and became loose in the hub. The bushing displayed traces of bonding sealant; however, the hub bore for the bushing did not. The hub cavity and the area on the aft side of the propeller piston, which are normally dry, contained "significant" amounts of oil. Pressurized oil on both sides of the propeller piston resulted in a hydraulic lock, fixed pitch condition. Using the as-found condition of the accident propeller system, engineers determined that airspeed of 97 knots or slower would be required to create positive thrust from the propeller system. After the accident, the propeller manufacturer revised its inspection and repair criteria, and changed the pitch change rod bushing installation procedure from one that used bonding sealants, to one that required a spiral retaining ring. The use of bonding sealants was no longer permitted.
Probable cause
The loss of propeller thrust due to the unseating of an internal propeller hub bushing. Contributing to the accident was the manufacturer's inadequate procedure to secure the bushing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA112
- Event ID
- 20080408X00440
- Case number
- NYC08LA112
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 4b4e80420c093e6057b89629d202762e32e9090b98327334168bd26fa7215196; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:30:39.623Z.