- Date
- February 13, 1990, 20:31 local (Feb 14, 1990, 01:31 UTC)
- Place
- Worcester, MA
- Injuries
- 1 minor, 3 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N763DSPiper PA-28-181
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report March 12, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900213002109A
- Case key
- 36611
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
A power loss due to an oil pump failure while operating over unsuitable terrain. A factor related to the accident was night conditions.
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
At night, while enroute to northampton, Massachusetts, the airplane engine failed. The pilot landed in the parking lot of the university of Massachusetts medical center, Worcester, Massachusetts, and collided with a car and a utility pole that could not have been avoided. The engine examination revealed the oil pump failed. The connecting rods were overtempertured, and the bearings of the connecting rods had failed. Bench binocular microscopic examination of the drive and driven impeller fracture surfaces of the oil pump revealed that they broke as a result of overstress separations. The driven impeller had characteristics typical of a sintered-power-metal components, the total time on the component was 1828.0 hours. The drive impeller appeared to be machined from barstock (steel). SB-456C time of compliance was at next overhaul, not to exceed 2000 hours with sintered iron gears.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N763DS
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-181
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-7690331
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A4M, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- City Aviation, doing business as Amherst Aviation
- Departed
- OWD · Norwood, MA
- Destination
- 7B2 · Northampton, MA
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
- 32
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Flight hours
- 1,083 total · 405 in this make and model · 926 as pilot in command · 88 in the last 90 days · 30 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Visibility
- 8 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.