CEN22FA419 · Piper PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) to Columbus County Municipal Airport (CPC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN22FA419
- 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
- 2 · 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 PA-28R-201
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N62FC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR), Myrtle Beach, SCTo Columbus County Municipal Airport (CPC), Whiteville, NC
- 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
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- 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
Shortly after departure, on the first flight following maintenance, the pilot reported a loss of engine power. The pilot attempted a forced landing onto a gravel road, but the airplane impacted trees and powerlines on final approach. The airplane came to rest against a berm and a postcrash fire ensued. A postaccident examination of the engine revealed that the Nos. 2, 3, and 4 connecting rods were separated from the crankshaft. The left side of the engine crankcase was fractured. The Nos. 3 and 4 connecting rods were separated from their respective crankshaft rod journals. During disassembly of the engine, a vacuum pump cover was removed from the vacuum pump drive pad and no gasket, or remnants of a gasket, were found. Other engine components were removed, and all had remnants of a gasket despite the thermal damage. When the crankshaft was removed, discoloration was present, consistent with exposure to high heat. It is therefore likely that the gasket had not been installed following the completion of maintenance work. Additionally, when the bottom of the empennage was examined, a sizeable quantity of oil was present near the tail tie down ring.
A review of the airplane maintenance records revealed that after a certificated airframe and powerplant mechanic had completed the work on the airplane, the Director of Maintenance, an airframe and powerplant mechanic with inspection authorization, signed off the paperwork to return the airplane back to service. The return to service entry stated that the vacuum pump had been removed but did not address the installation of the drive pad gasket or vacuum pump cover. In an interview, the mechanic who completed the removal of the vacuum pump and installation of the vacuum pump cover stated that that when he removed the vacuum pump, the gasket was still attached to it. He cleaned the mating surface of the cover and drive pad and then installed the cover. He stated that he thought he had replaced the gasket. A review of the work order showed that although the cover had been ordered, there was no record of a gasket being ordered.
It is likely that, following the removal of the vacuum pump and system, no gasket was installed between the vacuum pump drive cover and the engine accessory case. Additionally, the Director of Maintenance likely did not review the work in detail before signing for the airplane to return to service. As the oil temperature increased, the viscosity lowered, and the oil became thin and thus more easily able to escape from non-sealed areas.
Probable cause
The mechanic’s failure to install the required gasket on the vacuum pump drive pad in accordance with the maintenance manual, which resulted in oil exhaustion and the subsequent loss of engine power. Contributing to the accident was the Director of Maintenance’s failure to verify the installation of the vacuum pump gasket before returning the airplane to service.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN22FA419
- Event ID
- 20220914105936
- Case number
- CEN22FA419
- 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, coordinates, 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: 0dacefa0e3cd752c0e6c2a9eb3376d22c4769666e76ff8ebf52d84698fe6f1e8; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:51:02.956Z.