ERA09LA146 · Cessna 152
Dean International Cessna 152 · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV) to Miami Executive Airport (TMB)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA146
- 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
- N6566P
- Operator
- Dean International
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV), Brooksville, FLTo Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, FL
- 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 · change of cruise level
- 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 power plant
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was climbing to 7,500 feet mean sea level when the engine started vibrating. The engine temperature increased and the engine stopped. The pilot realized that he could not make an airport and made a forced landing to a phosphate field. Examination of the engine revealed that it contained 6 quarts of dark black oil. The oil filter was removed and contained metallic contamination. Disassembly of the engine revealed dirt particle embedment on the Numbers 1 and 2 cylinder connecting rod bearings. The Number 3 connecting rod bearing was found disconnected from the crankshaft, with only small steel fragments remaining. The No. 3 connecting rod cap and associated broken rod bolts displayed overload signatures. The Number 4 connecting rod remained attached to the crankshaft and displayed heavy heat damage consistent with oil starvation. The operator reported that its maintenance personnel were performing oil changes during the 100-hour inspections. Lycoming Mandatory Service Bulletin 480E states that engines with a full-flow filtration system are required to have the oil changed at 50-hour intervals.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to failure of the Number 3 connecting rod due to oil contamination. Contributing to the accident was the insufficient oil change time intervals performed by company personnel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA146
- Event ID
- 20090131X30350
- Case number
- ERA09LA146
- 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. 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: 4feee3f950077b773a7a04229bbcf93b779f4731d8b7cfb951a51b2c41ad507e; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:43:21.365Z.