CHI08CA112 · Pierson RV-6
Pierson RV-6 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09) to Cushing Field Ltd Airport (0C8)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08CA112
- 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
Pierson RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Pierson RV-6
- 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
- N606JP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09), Morris, ILTo Cushing Field Ltd Airport (0C8), Newark, IL
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during cruise flight he heard a bang and then the engine began to run rough. He immediately diverted to a nearby airport and entered the traffic pattern for a precautionary landing. As the airplane turned onto final approach, he saw an ultralight taxiing on the far-end of the runway that would interfere with his landing roll. He decided to perform a go-around and increased engine power. On the second approach, as the airplane was turning onto final approach, the pilot intentionally shut-down the engine by switching off the ignition and fuel selector. The airplane's main landing gear impacted a barbed-wire fence that bordered the approach end of the runway. The right wing leading edge received substantial impact damage. The propeller and engine support structure were damaged, and the main landing gear had collapsed. During a post-accident inspection, compression was noted on cylinder numbers 1, 2, and 3 when the engine crankshaft was rotated. No compression was noted on the number 4 cylinder. The number 4 exhaust valve was fractured and missing approximately 180-degrees of its valve head. The engine had a total time of 1,996.1 hours and had accumulated 537.1 hours since its last overhaul.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to the fracture of the number 4 exhaust valve, and the pilot's decision to shut-down the engine without sufficient altitude to ensure a safe glide path to the runway. Contributing to the accident was the barbed wire fence located at the end of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08CA112
- Event ID
- 20080613X00848
- Case number
- CHI08CA112
- 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: 06eaba74f9e63844f33954bd8b8034db2df4aa4ebc19c1d0a3f3b3f0ab8c6bdc; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:45:49.249Z.