CEN10LA140 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to Dallas Executive Airport (RBD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10LA140
- 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
- N2036Y
- Operator
- Gale Donald H
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, TXTo Dallas Executive Airport (RBD), Dallas, TX
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While at 5,500 feet mean sea level, the pilot heard a loud explosion and the left front engine cowling blew open. Shortly thereafter the engine stopped producing power and the pilot executed a forced landing to a flat plowed field. The No. 2 cylinder was found separated from the engine crankcase. A postaccident engine teardown examination revealed that there had been an insufficient clamping force between the crankcase halves and between each cylinder and the crankcase. In particular, the No. 2 crankcase cylinder deck exhibited signatures consistent with the No. 2 cylinder vibrating back and forth before it exited the engine case. At the time of the accident, the engine had accumulated approximately 1,072 hours since major overhaul and 641 hours since a top overhaul.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to the insufficient clamping force between the two crankcase halves and each cylinder to the crankcase.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10LA140
- Event ID
- 20100308X95624
- Case number
- CEN10LA140
- 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: 97075d4b7a327388a1d5f2b9a1dd39f0ecc1a0dfa3f17b84c8ff4584439951f2; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:43:39.206Z.