- Date
- January 24, 1985, 15:45 local (23:45 UTC)
- Place
- Helendale, CA
- Injuries
- 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N3983DPiper PA-24-400
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19850124002259A
- Case key
- 24461
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
Shortly after initiating an enroute letdown, the acft experienced a catastrophic engine failure at about 4,500 ft MSL. Plt selected a road for an attempted emergency landing, but a car turned onto the road in front of him and forced a diversion to a nearby field. The acft encountered berms, ruts and clumps of bushes after touchdown. Examination of the engine revealed that the number 6 cylinder connecting rod had failed near the crankshaft end with high cycle fatigue evident over about 60% of the material thickness. Examination of the acft maintenance records disclosed that since manufacture in 1964, the acft had accrued a total of 1,299 hrs, with only 109 hrs in operation since 1976. Lycoming publications indicated that the rod had been superceded in production several times, with this particular part number not allowed for reuse at overhaul. The manufacturers recommended overhaul period is 1,800 hrs or 10 years time in service, whichever comes first.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3983D
- Reported as
- Piper PA-24-400
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 26-111
- Airframe hours
- 1,299
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-720-A1A, 400 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Norman D. Norris
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · December 6, 1984 · 11 hours before
- Departed
- BLD · Boulder City, NV
- Destination
- WJF · Lancaster, CA
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 61
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 9,997 total · 9 in this make and model · 8,331 as pilot in command · 8 in the last 90 days · 8 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 360° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 60 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 8,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 54 °F, dew point 21 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- VCV, 14 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.