ERA19LA258 · Beech F33 A
Beech F33 A · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Witham Field (SUA) to Witham Field (SUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19LA258
- 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
- 0
- 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
Beech F33 A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N80WH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Witham Field (SUA), Stuart, FLTo Witham Field (SUA), Stuart, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 45 years (built 1974)
- 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 power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During low-altitude cruise flight, the engine lost total power and the pilot performed a forced landing on an embankment next to a road, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing, right tip tank, and right elevator. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed that the crankshaft was fractured between the No. 2 main bearing journal and the No. 2 connecting rod journal and exhibited evidence of lubrication distress. Additionally, the No. 2 bearing had shifted, and a large portion of the bearing had extruded from the bearing support. The bearing support mating surfaces displayed fretting and the lock tab had completely worn away. Based on the observed damage, it is likely that the No. 2 main bearing shifted, resulting in inadequate lubrication to, and subsequent failure of, the crankshaft.
While the crankcase mating surfaces displayed unapproved sealant material with no signs of silk thread, which was not consistent with the engine manufacturer’s guidance for engine assembly, the breakaway through bolt torque remained at or above the manufacturer’s specification. It could not be definitively determined, based on available evidence, if the use of an unapproved sealant contributed to the bearing shift.
Probable cause
A bearing shift, which resulted in a loss of lubrication to the crankshaft, the failure of the crankshaft, and a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19LA258
- Event ID
- 20190824X03850
- Case number
- ERA19LA258
- 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, cause areas. 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: 1421fbd7cb200f0a61e1fb7145a83807dbd026824764125c873b4130afb2f128; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:51:46.763Z.