WPR15LA196 · Piper PA 32R-301
Piper PA 32R-301 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From North Las Vegas Airport (VGT) to El Paso International Airport (KELP)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR15LA196
- 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 32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N35590
- Operator
- Harry Silsby MD P C
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), Las Vegas, NVTo El Paso International Airport (KELP), El Paso, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1979)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, while in cruise flight during the personal flight, the engine started to "sputter" and lose power. During troubleshooting efforts, the engine lost total power. The pilot then attempted to restart the engine without success and subsequently initiated a forced landing on a nearby beach.
A postaccident engine examination revealed that the engine crankshaft would not rotate manually. Disassembly of the engine revealed evidence of wear and heat damage to the Nos. 1 and 2 crankshaft bearing halves. The oil filter contained no contaminants or metallic particles. No further evidence of a preexisting mechanical malfunction was noted during the examination of the engine and airframe.
Damage to main bearings can occur from multiple sources, including oil contamination, excessive loads, or disruption of the lubrication between the bearing face and the main journal. Given that the Nos. 1 and 2 bearings were the only damaged bearings throughout the engine, it is unlikely that oil contamination caused the damage. In addition, given that the Nos. 1 and 2 bearings are located in the forward area of the engine and experience lighter loads than those located in the aft area of the engine, it is unlikely that excessive loads caused the damage. Although a propeller strike could result in an abnormal loading and lubrication of the bearings, a review of the airframe and engine maintenance records revealed no evidence of a reported propeller strike.
Absent one of the above issues, it is likely that a disruption of the lubrication between the bearing face and the main journal resulted in the wear of the Nos. 1 and 2 bearing halves. However, no evidence of oil passage blockage, leaks, or excessive clearance between the bearings and the crankshaft journals was observed; therefore, the reason for the likely lubrication disruption or whether it caused the loss of engine power could not be determined. In addition, the accident bearings had an aluminum-tin intermediate layer, which makes the bearings less robust than those with a copper-alloy intermediate layer; thus, the wear and heat damage could have been preceded by delamination of the aluminum-tin intermediate layer. However, postaccident examination could not determine whether this occurred.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during cruise flight for reasons that could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR15LA196
- Event ID
- 20150622X84004
- Case number
- WPR15LA196
- 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: 488f90c018ee98ec84509fbf125594c765d042e4471e41c4ddb588eaced886d8; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:27:02.696Z.