WPR10LA130 · Nanchang China CJ-6A
Nanchang China CJ-6A · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Falcon Field (FFZ) to Falcon Field (FFZ)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA130
- 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
Nanchang China CJ-6A
- Aircraft type
- Nanchang China CJ-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
- N6263D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Falcon Field (FFZ), Falcon Field, AZTo Falcon Field (FFZ), Falcon Field, AZ
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that about 30 minutes into the 45 minute-long flight, the engine began vibrating and he maneuvered the airplane back towards the airport. As the airplane joined the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, the pilot heard a "bang," followed by the engine experiencing complete loss of engine power. Unable to land at the airport due to altitude loss, the pilot performed a forced landing in an adjacent park. During the landing sequence the airplane struck a building while the pilot attempted to avoid a pedestrian. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and forward fuselage. Examination of the radial engine revealed that one of the cylinder heads and its associated piston had become separated. The remaining internal sections of the engine sustained catastrophic damage, consistent with continued rotation after the failure of the cylinder. Half of the studs attaching the failed cylinder to the head exhibited fatigue signatures consistent with insufficient clamping pressure applied to their nuts. A full service history for the engine was not located; however, maintenance records indicated that the cylinder head had not been removed in the 11 years and 317 flight hours prior to the accident.
Probable cause
Separation of the cylinder from the engine during cruise flight due to fatigue in the studs attaching it to the engine casing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA130
- Event ID
- 20100207X21828
- Case number
- WPR10LA130
- 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: 1aaaaec2501f95ec5edcb4fc0864cb21c94bfce7fbcc14718f9349ee86471aad; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:40:08.823Z.