CEN16LA320 · Cirrus Design Corp SR20
Alidade Partners Cirrus Design Corp SR20 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Des Moines International Airport (DSM) to Warren County Airport/John Lane Field (I68)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA320
- 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
Cirrus Design Corp SR20
- Aircraft type
- Cirrus SR20
- 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
- N314BF
- Operator
- Alidade Partners
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Des Moines International Airport (DSM), Des Moines, IATo Warren County Airport/John Lane Field (I68), Lebanon, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2000)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and three passengers departed on a personal cross-country flight when the pilot heard and felt a sudden reduction in engine power during initial climb. He told the tower controller that he had engine trouble and requested an immediate landing. The pilot was unable to maintain altitude and, as a result, deployed the airplane's emergency parachute system. After a successful parachute deployment, the airplane contacted power lines shortly before it impacted the ground in a nose-level attitude. After the airplane landed, the occupants egressed, and a fire erupted that destroyed the airframe.
A postaccident engine examination revealed that the induction tube coupler closest to the No. 1 cylinder was partially disconnected from its associated induction tube. Although both coupler clamps were tight, the clamp closest to the No. 1 cylinder did not overlap its associated induction tube. Additionally, the cylinder No. 3 induction tube was fractured at the cylinder mounting flange. A laboratory examination of the cylinder No. 3 induction tube revealed multiple areas of fatigue; however, the cause of the fatigue could not be conclusively determined due to postfracture damage. The material properties of the induction tube were consistent with the manufacturer's specification for an annealed aluminum alloy. A review of the engine logbook was inconclusive as to whether the induction system tubes had been removed for maintenance in the 7.4 years since the engine had been rebuilt. The two separations in the induction system likely caused an imbalance of the intake pressures and the partial loss of engine power during initial climb.
Probable cause
The two separations in the induction system due to improper installation and/or maintenance, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power during initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA320
- Event ID
- 20160815X12510
- Case number
- CEN16LA320
- 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: beb1a7f07f4f6df3d2aa8bededd82ac1a5ed3940f7a01f117e92a1346b96101d; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:09:19.724Z.