CEN14LA309 · Schumacher CHALLENGER II
Schumacher CHALLENGER II · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Sidney, IL (private airstrip) to Sidney, IL (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA309
- 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
Schumacher CHALLENGER II
- Aircraft type
- Schumacher CHALLENGER
- 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
- N441MS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sidney, IL (private airstrip)To Sidney, IL (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 10 years (built 2004)
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during cruise flight about 1,200 ft mean sea level, the engine experienced a sudden and total loss of power. He was unsuccessful in reestablishing engine power and selected a nearby soybean field for a forced landing. The pilot stated that, as he maneuvered the airplane toward the field, the setting sun temporarily obstructed his forward visibility. The airplane subsequently collided with power lines and then entered an aerodynamic stall and impacted terrain.
A postaccident engine examination revealed scoring and a lack of proper oil lubrication of the forward cylinder piston adjacent to the intake and exhaust ports. The rear cylinder piston did not exhibit scoring; however, evidence of oil starvation was observed. Further examination of the oil system revealed that the mechanical oil injection pump had seized within its housing. Additionally, the oil pump nylon drive-coupling had fractured. The oil pump was a nonserviceable component that prevented further disassembly. The pilot reported that the experimental engine was not originally equipped with a mechanical oil injection pump and that he had the engine modified with the oil pump about 50 hours before the accident. The total loss of engine power during the accident flight was due to a cylinder seizure, which resulted from a lack of lubrication following the failure of the mechanical oil injection pump.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power due to a lack of lubrication following the in-flight failure of the mechanical oil injection pump. Contributing to the accident was the temporary obscuration of the pilot's forward visibility due to sun glare during the forced landing, which resulted in a collision with power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA309
- Event ID
- 20140623X00759
- Case number
- CEN14LA309
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2014-06-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 538f7f871e9a45b7005123dd8ffec6e31c9ad008501a149658f9af7aeb0e1b52; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:25:28.049Z.