CEN09LA209 · Beech B24R
Beech B24R · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Grimes Field (I74) to Bluffton Airport (5G7)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09LA209
- 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 B24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- 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
- N9348S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grimes Field (I74), Urbana, OHTo Bluffton Airport (5G7), Bluffton, OH
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During cruise flight the pilot noticed abnormal engine noises and a partial loss of engine oil pressure. He immediately diverted to the nearest airport, but during the turn to base leg the engine oil pressure dropped to zero pounds per square inch and the engine seized. The airplane was not in a position to reach the runway threshold or to clear the airport perimeter fence. During the landing rollout the airplane impacted the airport perimeter fence, damaging both wings and the nose landing gear. An engine teardown examination revealed that the Number 3 cylinder connecting rod assembly had separated from its corresponding crankshaft journal. The journal surface was blue in color, consistent with exposure to excessive heat and lack of lubricant. The oil suction screen was obstructed with bearing material. The Number 3 cylinder connecting rod cap was found jammed beneath the counterbalance weight. One of the two connecting rod stretch bolts remained intact. The corresponding nut was found finger tight. The measured torque for the Number 2 cylinder connecting rod bolts were significantly less than the manufacturer's specification. The engine had accumulated a total of 3,799 hours since new and 492.7 hours since its last overhaul in 1999. The engine was last inspected 23.9 hours before the accident occurred.
Probable cause
The inadequate torque of the Number 3 cylinder rod bolts by maintenance personnel, which resulted in a failure of the connecting rod and a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09LA209
- Event ID
- 20090316X92527
- Case number
- CEN09LA209
- 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: c77568579044fb087e9229a9a112c546db8fbc55440e35a4cbdf14902e4fc2b5; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:50:44.337Z.