On Sept. 8, 2020, a Piper PA-28-181 owned by the Lebanon Flying Club crashed near McMinnville, Tennessee. The pilot and two passengers were fatally injured.
The pilot flew uneventfully from Murfreesboro Municipal Airport (KMBT) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to Warren County Memorial Airport (KRNC) in McMinnville, Tennessee.
Review of security video at KRNC revealed that the airplane landed on Runway 23, then taxied back to the beginning of the runway for takeoff. It disappeared from camera view about one minute after takeoff.
Smoke was observed emanating from the airplane before it traveled beyond camera view.
A witness, who was walking in his backyard, heard an airplane engine go silent, then heard the sound of an impact about 30 seconds later. During that time, he briefly saw the airplane through the trees, but could not determine its attitude.
Examination of the accident site by FAA inspectors and a representative from the airframe manufacturer revealed that the airplane came to rest flat and upright in a field about 1,000 feet northwest (45° right of runway departure end) of Runway 23.
Examination of the engine revealed that the No. 4 cylinder head was fractured circumferentially, exposing the top of the piston. The cylinder head was displaced horizontally from the crankcase so that the pushrods and pushrod tubes remained captured in the cylinder head but were dislodged from the crankcase.
Metallurgical examination of the cylinder revealed a flat fracture with thumbnail-shaped arrest marks consistent with fatigue cracking, which was observed around approximately 180° of the cylinder circumference. The fatigue cracking emanated from the vertical stiffener on the front of the cylinder between the third and fourth fins. The fatigue cracking appeared to initiate at the start of the fillet between the vertical stiffener and the circumferential outer wall of the cylinder. The remainder of the fracture surface was consistent with overstress.
The cylinder was manufactured in 2018 by Continental Aerospace Technologies (CAT), which acquired Engine Components International Division (ECi) in 2015. FAA Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2009-26-12, issued on Feb. 4, 2010, affected 18,000 ECi cylinders regarding inspection and/or replacement due to cracks and cylinder head separation. The accident cylinder was not subject to the AD because it was manufactured after the AD was issued. Review of FAA service difficulty reports did not reveal any other cylinder head cracks or separations pertaining to cylinders manufactured after the AD was issued.
Probable Cause: A total loss of engine power due to a fatigue failure in a cylinder, and the pilot’s subsequent failure to maintain airspeed and her exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle-of-attack while maneuvering at low altitude.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This September 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
The engine failed several hundred yards before leaving the runway , saw everything that happened that day, was a neighbor, after reading report the pilot should have never left the runway . Scary scenario and loss of lives.
I saw the photo of the aircraft in the field. Sad. It LOOKS like a good place to land. Maybe stalled, hit hard, even though upright and flat. Losing an engine at low level–pucker factor nine, can cause a pilot to stall. No flaps, either, which makes the stall speed higher. RIP.
If you read the NTSB final report by following the link in the article you will see that, yes, the pilot stalled and hit very hard. How many times have we heard that when the engine quits, lower the nose to best glide speed. But as you say, when it happens it is such a surprise that it may be difficult to remember. So the answer is to practice it, and practice it more often than once every two years. It is money well spent to go up with an instructor every six months or so and practice those emergency procedures so that when it happens to you, you react properly rather than panicking and pulling back on the yoke/stick instead of releasing back pressure as you should.
This 400 hour pilot should have been able to recover from a departure stall, but, sadly did not.
So, it looks like ECI still has a cylinder-to-barrel overstress issue. The Lycoming engine should have been able to continue running, but at much lower power to make an off-airport landing a bit easier.
Back in 2009 the Aero club I was flying with had a similar issue, blowing the head off one of the ECI cylinders. But the aircraft was at 1,000+ ft. after takeoff, so the pilot was able to do a 180 and return . As we pushed the aircraft from the taxiway to the ramp , it was streaming a large trail of oil.