CEN15LA318 · Piper PA38 - 112
Piper PA38 - 112 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Toledo Executive Airport (KTDZ) to Region of Waterloo International Airport (CYKF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15LA318
- 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
Piper PA38 - 112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA38
- 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
- C-GTAO
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Toledo Executive Airport (KTDZ), Toledo, OHTo Region of Waterloo International Airport (CYKF), Breslau Ontario
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
Shortly after takeoff, the pilot declared a "mayday" and reported to air traffic control that he needed to return to the airport. The airplane crashed in an open field about ½ mile from the airport. The pilot initially survived the accident but later died from his injuries. A postaccident examination of the engine revealed the valve adjustment mechanisms (jam nut and screw) on two of the intake valves and on one of the exhaust valves were backed off. The valve spring retainer on one of the intake valves was broken, and two of the cylinder head gaskets were compromised. The spark plugs were fouled. Given the postaccident condition of the engine, the pilot most likely was returning to the airport due to a loss of engine power. Maintenance records show the engine had an annual inspection about 25 flight hours before the accident. The condition of the valve adjustment mechanisms suggests that either the tappet adjustment was not checked, as recommended by the manufacturer, or the torque on the jam nuts was incorrect.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to three of the engine valve adjustment mechanisms backing out, which resulted from improper maintenance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15LA318
- Event ID
- 20150727X41011
- Case number
- CEN15LA318
- 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: 56c79ec60fb969f483d7a65d2776c127923276aa1d102657717534923acd38c1; retrieved 2026-09-14T19:46:34.220Z.