WPR14FA316 · Meyer LEGACY
Meyer LEGACY · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Richland Airport (RLD) to Baker Municipal Airport (BHK)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14FA316
- 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
- 1 · 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
Meyer LEGACY
- Aircraft type
- Meyer LEGACY
- 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
- N29MM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richland Airport (RLD), Richland, WATo Baker Municipal Airport (BHK), Baker, MT
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2009)
- 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
The commercial pilot was conducting a personal cross-country flight in an amateur-built, experimental airplane when he transmitted a distress call. Two pilots in other aircraft near the accident airplane's location relayed the pilot's "mayday" call to air traffic control and he was subsequently heard stating that he had low engine oil pressure and that oil was covering the windshield while he was flying over wooded mountainous terrain. The pilot attempted a forced landing, but the airplane struck trees and then impacted the terrain.
Postaccident examination of the engine revealed a hole in the top of the engine case near the No. 2 cylinder. An engine teardown revealed that the Nos. 1 and 2 cylinder connecting rods had fractured. The examination of the fracture surfaces determined that the No. 1 connecting rod fracture was initiated by a fatigue crack and was the catalyst for the engine failure. In addition, partial surface decarburization and surface corrosion pits were observed around the surface of the connecting rod shaft. It is likely that the decarburization and corrosion pits decreased the connecting rod's surface hardness, served as fatigue initiation sites, and led to the premature failure of the No. 1 connecting rod. Although some fatigue cracks were observed on the No. 2 connecting rod, most of the facture surfaces exhibited overstress failure; therefore, the No. 2 connecting rod likely failed after the No. 1 connecting rod fractured. Although the cause of the decarburization was not determined based on the available evidence, it typically results from a manufacturing deficiency.
Toxicology testing of the pilot detected metoprolol and rosuvastatin in his tissue samples, and he had a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol; however, it is unlikely that the pilot's medical conditions or the medications he was using to treat them impaired his ability to safely operate the airplane.
Probable cause
The fatigue fracture of an engine connecting rod, which resulted in a catastrophic engine failure and a forced landing in unsuitable terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14FA316
- Event ID
- 20140729X95802
- Case number
- WPR14FA316
- 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: a37d5b14461aa3bfdc9feb85a033c0bcf86f1674a078fd0aaab6ebbd86f50412; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:22:46.194Z.