ERA11LA242 · WSK-Mielec AN-2
Vertol Systems WSK-Mielec AN-2 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Destin Executive Airport (DTS) to Beauregard Regional Airport (DRI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA11LA242
- 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
WSK-Mielec AN-2
- Aircraft type
- WSK Mielec AN-2
- 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
- N122AN
- Operator
- Vertol Systems
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Destin Executive Airport (DTS), Ft Walton Beach, FLTo Beauregard Regional Airport (DRI), De Ridder, LA
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during cruise flight the engine began to run rough and lose power. He heard a loud metallic sound; the engine vibrated violently and then lost power. He performed a forced landing to a farm field, and the airplane nosed over in the soft terrain, resulting in substantial damage to the wings. A postaccident inspection revealed that the crankshaft would not rotate. An internal inspection of the cylinders and spark plugs did not reveal a reason for the power loss. The oil system was examined and there were large amounts of metal particles in the oil. Due to a lack of suitable equipment and facilities, further disassembly of the engine was not attempted.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to internal failure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA11LA242
- Event ID
- 20110414X31705
- Case number
- ERA11LA242
- 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: 36750b41a9b3e7e82802dd4ab402d5810df8c4ea54e4e9dbfd607751b1c4ebd2; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:03:30.493Z.