CEN19LA290 · Beech V35
Beech V35 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Rochester International Airport (RST) to Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19LA290
- 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 V35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N6245V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rochester International Airport (RST), Rochester, MNTo Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 52 years (built 1967)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot and passenger were en route on an instrument flight rules flight when the engine lost oil pressure, followed by a total loss of engine power. The pilot declared an emergency with air traffic control and stated that he “had an oil pressure event there but it’s building back up so standby.” The controller cleared him direct to the nearest airport and asked the pilot if he need any assistance at the airport, which the pilot declined. Flight track data showed that the airplane began a shallow descent toward the diversion airport before the data ended about 2 minutes later. The pilot stated that he flew directly over the airport and was unable to see it due to oil on the windshield and smoke in the cabin; he eventually performed a forced landing in a field about 4 nautical miles from the diversion airport.
A postaccident disassembly examination revealed a large hole in the top of the engine crankcase above the No. 6 cylinder. The inside of the engine contained a significant amount of metallic debris. The Nos. 1 through 4 connecting rods remained attached to the crankshaft, but all exhibited significant heat distress from a lack of oil lubrication. The Nos. 5 and 6 connecting rods fractured at the bearing and sustained damage from impacting the crankshaft, cylinder walls, and the inside of the case. The ends of the Nos. 5 and 6 connecting rods and their bearings were not found or identified within the available metallic debris. It is likely that the Nos. 5 and 6 connecting rods failed due to a lack of oil lubrication; however, the reason for the oil loss could not be determined. The continued operation of the engine after the loss of oil pressure likely contributed to and aggravated the amount of damage to the engine.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to the failure of the Nos. 5 and 6 connecting rods from a lack of oil lubrication for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19LA290
- Event ID
- 20190827X51852
- Case number
- CEN19LA290
- 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: d0a9d09faac4f813f68e00daa47ecc4c0ef64f087de1f6df6789d0538541841d; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:53:34.683Z.