CEN13LA103 · Auman JL T-51
Auman JL T-51 · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (DKB) to DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (DKB)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA103
- 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
Auman JL T-51
- Aircraft type
- Auman JL T-51
- 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
- N512JA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (DKB), Dekalb, ILTo DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (DKB), Dekalb, IL
- 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 · climb to 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental amateur-built airplane experienced a total loss of engine power during a phase one test flight. The pilot performed a forced landing on a field where airplane nosed-over due to the rough condition of the field that precluded a normal landing rollout.
Before the phase 1 test flight, the pilot had returned the engine to the kit manufacturer for repair due to leaking engine coolant. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed catastrophic damage; the engine head bolt had been tighten above the engine manufacturer's torque values, which indicated that the kit manufacturer used excessive torque on the head bolts in an attempt to repair coolant leakage through the engine head.
The postaccident examination showed that the engine was assembled with cast and not forged pistons, which should be used in high performance applications. The bending and thread damage on the intact connecting rod bolt for the forward right cylinder and the mating thread damage in the connecting rod were consistent with the bolt backing out until it sheared the remaining threads. Another bolt that backed out of position was also present on the connecting rod in the middle right position. Measurements of cylinder wall carbon lines showed a variance in size, which may have been due to hydraulic lock related bending of the connecting rods.
Probable cause
The improper engine overhaul by the airplane kit manufacturer, which resulted in a catastrophic engine failure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA103
- Event ID
- 20121214X14441
- Case number
- CEN13LA103
- 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: 4fbc660038c906f3ff228700fb0faec1054aa183c3c9ef9cd6ca8d0f91928a9e; retrieved 2026-09-15T20:35:04.505Z.