WPR17IA173 · Columbia Aircraft MFG LC41 550FG
Columbia Aircraft MFG LC41 550FG · Incident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (NYL) to Pegasus Airpark (5AZ3)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR17IA173
- 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
- Incident
- 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
Columbia Aircraft MFG LC41 550FG
- Aircraft type
- Columbia LC41
- 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
- N8725
- Operator
- Peter Spanganberg
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (NYL), Yuma, AZTo Pegasus Airpark (5AZ3), Queen Creek, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2006)
- 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
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the flight the pilot reported a loss of oil pressure followed by a decrease in manifold pressure. The pilot declared an emergency and requested landing clearance, however, the engine lost total power and he initiated a forced landing to a field where the airplane sustained minor damage. Postincident examination of the airplane revealed that the lower side of the fuselage was covered in oil and a hole was discovered in the engine’s crankcase. The examination of the engine revealed damage to the starter adapter assembly, which included the starter pulley, bearing, seal, and shaft, that was consistent with the over-tensioning of the accessory belt, which resulted in an excessive side-load. The damaged starter adapter assembly components ultimately resulted in the loss of engine oil and subsequent failure of several connecting rods due to oil starvation. A manufacturer Critical Service Bulletin provided instructions for an inspection of the starter adapter for indications of oil leakage at the shaft oil seal, however, review of the airplane maintenance records show that the service bulletin was not complied with.
Probable cause
The over-tensioning of the accessory belt, which resulted in damage to the starter adapter and subsequent loss of oil that led to oil starvation and catastrophic engine failure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR17IA173
- Event ID
- 20170731X32913
- Case number
- WPR17IA173
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2017-08-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f3abe1e5f224cc755f75a91fefc95181d557e64fb6899ef307302b71642dfa4a; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:37:39.794Z.