WPR14LA345 · Piper PA 28-236
Piper PA 28-236 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Gooding Municipal Airport (KGNG) to Kalispell City Airport (S27)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA345
- 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
Piper PA 28-236
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2190H
- Operator
- Kemper Eugene L JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gooding Municipal Airport (KGNG), Gooding, IDTo Kalispell City Airport (S27), Kalispell, MT
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1978)
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before departing on the personal cross-country flight, the private pilot noted that there was no engine vacuum indication. He took the airplane to a maintenance facility, and a mechanic replaced the vacuum pump. Following the replacement, no leak check was performed; however, vacuum was restored when the engine was started, and the pilot subsequently departed on the flight.
The pilot reported that, about 150 miles from his destination, the engine lost oil pressure. He then turned the airplane toward the nearest airport, and the engine lost power. The airplane was unable to glide to the airport, so he landed it in a hayfield next to the airport. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.
During examination of the engine, holes were found in the top of the case. The engine was covered with oily residue, and oil streaking was found along the bottom of the fuselage. The internal engine parts were fragmented, and the oil filter material was infused with metal fragments.
During examination of the recently installed "dry" vacuum pump, the appropriate fiber gasket was found in place between the pump body and the accessory mounting pad surface. The gasket appeared intact, and neither side (mating surface) showed signs of tearing or surface scuffing, peeling, or separation. The internal (dry) area was partially filled with oil, and all of the internal parts had oily residue. Oil staining was found on both sides of the gasket and around the accessory pad's pressure crankcase oil passage hole (used for "wet" pump installations), and extended along the internal cavity edge and the exterior perimeter of the pump base on three of its four sides. The pressure crankshaft oil galley hole was not sealed as recommended in the engine manufacturer's service instructions for the installation of a dry vacuum pump.
Further, the engine accessory mounting pad was examined, and it had remnants of gasket material not associated with the installed gasket adhered to it, making the surface rough and uneven. It is likely that the new dry pump was installed on an improperly cleaned surface and that this condition, in conjunction with the unsealed galley hole, allowed the engine oil to vent to the exterior of the engine and resulted in the loss of engine oil and oil pressure, internal engine damage, and the subsequent loss of engine power. If a postmaintenance leak check been performed, the oil leaking through the seal or hole would have been detected.
Probable cause
Maintenance personnel’s improper surface preparation of the accessory mount pad for the installation of the engine’s dry vacuum pump, which resulted in the loss of engine oil, oil pressure, and engine power during flight. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a postmaintenance leak check.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA345
- Event ID
- 20140813X65210
- Case number
- WPR14LA345
- 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: ed6d42965cc51194e3490fbf8864d305f153c23d1691fcd17018e8f80fdf1627; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:38:23.958Z.