FAA Flight Standards District Office: FAA Atlanta FSDO-11
NTSB Identification: ERA16LA071
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Tuesday, December 15, 2015 in Brunswick, GA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 08/16/2016
Aircraft: PIPER PA-32, registration: N8675N
Injuries: 2 Minor.
NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
The private pilot was conducting a personal cross-country flight. The pilot reported that the airplane was in cruise flight at 7,500 ft mean sea level when, without any warning, there was a loud explosion from the engine and an immediate loss of engine power. The explosion caused the oil filler door to open, and oil subsequently spewed over the windshield, and smoke filled the cockpit. The pilot declared an emergency and attempted to glide to a nearby airport; however, he landed the airplane on a rooftop a few hundred yards short of the runway.
Examination of the engine revealed that the No. 4 cylinder had separated from the engine case. All of the No.4 cylinder mounting stubs and through bolts were fractured except for the bottom forward stub; the nut for this stub was not located. The piston and corresponding connecting rod for the No. 4 cylinder were found in the bottom of the engine cowling.
A review of the engine maintenance logbooks revealed that the engine was overhauled almost 8 years before the accident and had accrued a total time of 1,005.0 hours since overhaul. There were no subsequent maintenance entries related to the No. 4 cylinder. Based on the evidence, it is likely that maintenance personnel applied insufficient torque to the cylinder’s bottom forward hold-down nut, which allowed it to loosen over time. The stress load was then transferred to the remaining nuts, which resulted in the failure of the stubs and through bolts and to the separation of the No. 4 cylinder.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
Maintenance personnel's failure to properly torque a No. 4 cylinder hold-down nut during engine overhaul, which resulted in the loosening of the nut and the subsequent failure of the studs and through bolts and separation of the cylinder.
On December 15, 2015, at 1050 eastern standard time, a Piper PA-32-300, N8675N, made a forced landing about .1-mile north of Malcolm McKinnon Airport (SSI), Brunswick, Georgia, after a catastrophic engine failure. The pilot and the passenger sustained minor injuries. The airplane landed on the roof of a home and collided with trees which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. The airplane was registered to a private company and operated as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 personal flight. Visual flight rules conditions existed near the accident site at the time of the accident. No flight plan was filed for the flight that originated from Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (CRG), Jacksonville, Florida, about 1020 and was destined for the Rock Hill/York County/Bryant Field (UZA), Rock Hill, South Carolina.
The pilot stated that he was in cruise flight at 7,500 ft mean sea level (msl) when, without any warning, there was a loud explosion from the engine and an immediate loss of engine power. The explosion caused the oil filler door to open and it partially pushed the Garmin 430 out of the dashboard. Oil spewed all over the windshield and smoke filled the cockpit. The pilot declared an emergency and attempted to glide to St. Simons Airport, St. Simons, Georgia; however, he landed on a rooftop a few hundred yards short of the runway. There was no post-impact fire.
An examination of the engine was conducted on January 26, 2016, by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The examination revealed the No. 4 cylinder had separated from the engine case. The cylinder skirt was split in several areas consistent with the piston making contact with the cylinder after it separated from the case. Groove marks etched on the top of the piston were consistent with it striking the cylinder skirt. All of the No.4 cylinders mounting stubs and thru-bolts were fractured except for the bottom forward stud. The piston and corresponding connecting rod for the No. 4 cylinder were found in the bottom of the engine cowling. The other engine components appeared unremarkable. The engine was completely disassembled and the No. 4 crank-journal showed no signs of bearing migration or excessive heat. However, there were numerous gouges and scratches throughout the inside of the engine from debris after the cylinder separated.
A review of the engine logbook revealed the engine was overhauled in February 2007 and installed on the airplane on March 16, 2007. The last engine inspection was completed on November 17, 2015, at total time of 1,005.0 hours since overhaul. A review of the engine's maintenance history since it was overhauled revealed no maintenance had been done to the No. 4 cylinder.
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Tuesday, December 15, 2015 in Brunswick, GA
Aircraft: PIPER PA-32, registration: N8675N
Injuries: 2 Minor.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On December 15, 2015, at 1050 eastern standard time, a Piper PA-32-300, N8675N, made a forced landing about .1-mile north of Malcolm McKinnon Airport (SSI), Brunswick, Georgia, after a catastrophic engine failure. The pilot and the passenger sustained minor injuries. The airplane landed on the roof of a home and collided with trees which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. The airplane was registered to a private company and operated as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 personal flight. Visual flight rules conditions existed near the accident site at the time of the accident. No flight plan was filed for the flight that originated from Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (CRG), Jacksonville, Florida, about 1020 and was destined for the Rock Hill/York County/Bryant Field (UZA), Rock Hill, South Carolina.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector performed an on-scene examination of the airplane and reported that the No. 4 cylinder had "blown off" and there was a large amount of oil observed.
The aircraft and engine were recovered for further examination.
The unidentified men were thankful they escaped the crash relatively unscathed, Glynn County aviation officials told First Coast News.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — A small plane landed on the roof of a house in St. Simons Island Tuesday morning, authorities said.
The pilot and passenger on board the Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six were taken to a local hospital to be checked out for minor injuries after the crash landing onto a home near Circle Drive and Florida Street before 11 a.m.
"They were conscious and moving around. They were obviously beat up," said James Burnsted, who along with his dad climbed ladders to help the crew get down.
The plane took off from Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport and was headed for the Hilton Head International Airport in Georgia.
FAA is investigating with the National Transportation and Safety Board.
The unidentified men were thankful they escaped the crash relatively unscathed, Glynn County aviation officials told First Coast News.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://www.firstcoastnews.com
ST. SIMONS ISLAND | Two people aboard a single-engine plane that crashed Tuesday morning onto a house near the island’s airport climbed down a ladder provided by the homeowner and suffered only minor injuries, officials said.
The Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six, which originated in Jacksonville, crashed about 11 a.m. after its occupants called air traffic controllers in Florida and reported engine trouble, said Tommy Dixon, an assistant chief with the Glynn County Fire Department.
“They lost contact with them temporarily,’’ Dixon said at the home on Circle Drive where the plane crashed a short distance from McKinnon St. Simons Airport’s main runway.
“They did a good job of putting it down,’’ Dixon said. “It may not look like it right now, but they did.”
According to its tail registration number, the plane is a Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six aircraft. It is registered to KDK Associates on Coquina Drive in Jacksonville. That is a consulting company owned by Allison and Keith Kennedy, but it is not known if they were the two people aboard the plane. Those people were taken to Southeast Georgia Health System’s Brunswick hospital with minor injuries that Dixon described as scrapes and bruises.
The plane sat diagonally on the roof with the nose near the ridge of the roof and the tail near the edge. The fuselage sat over a big hole that had been gouged through it.
Dixon said the homeowners were evacuated immediately. Other officials said fuel had leaked into the house.
The homeowners, Joanne and Wilfred McGuin were three houses away waiting for someone to bring belongings from their house and, Joanne McGuin said, food for their dogs, Kate and Bubbles.
Wilfred McGuin said he was working in the yard at the side of his house when the plane crashed over his head.
“It came down over the top of me,’’ and clipped a tree limb that fell very close to him, he said.
“I heard a big crash. I thought it was the rest of the limb on the roof,’’ Wilfred McGuin said.
Then he looked up and saw the plane and saw two men get onto the roof, he said.
He put up a ladder for them and they climbed down, McGuin said.
Joanne McQuin said she was outside on a deck when she heard the crash.
“There was no motor,’’ so there was no sound until the crash, she said.
“It looked like it went right across the top and hit our bedroom,’’ Joanne McGuin said.
The nose of the plane was pointed to the northwest, but a piece of the plane lay underneath a tree to the north of the house where it had clipped a topmost limb and broken it.
With the volatile aircraft fuel leaking into the house, two Glynn County fire trucks were standing by.
The Glynn County Airport Commission was awaiting permission from the FAA to have the plane lifted from the house.
Source: http://jacksonville.com
Nothing like a dead stick flaring out onto a roof for a very, very expensive pillow like landing.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...Plane seems to have been repaired (amazing) and is now flying in Brazil. Highly suspicious
ReplyDeletehttps://flightaware.com/live/flight/N8675N