Cessna 182A N3936D

Summary

On 27 November 2005 at about 21:26 local time, a Cessna 182A registered N3936D was involved in an accident near San Diego, California, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

27 November 2005 at 21:26

Classification

Accident

Location

San Diego, California, United States

Nearest airport

Gillespie Field (SEE)

Coordinates

32.8167, -116.9667

Aircraft

Cessna 182A

Registration

N3936D

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Livermore → San Diego

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX06LA048

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the camshaft due to fatigue of one of the gear teeth, which resulted in a loss of engine power. Factors were the fence and the fence post.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The engine experienced a loss of power and the airplane collided with a fence while the pilot was performing a forced landing. As the airplane approached the vicinity of the destination airport, the engine experienced a total loss of power. The pilot made a forced landing on highway about 2 miles from the airport. During the landing roll, the airplane impacted a fence. A post accident examination of the engine revealed that rotation of the crankshaft did not generate rotation of the camshaft. Removal of the starter drive gear assembly revealed that four gear teeth were missing from the camshaft sprocket and one gear tooth was missing from the crankshaft sprocket. The gear teeth were retrieved and sent to the Safety Board Materials Laboratory for examination. The camshaft gear sprocket failed due to fatigue initiating at the root of one of the teeth. Several other teeth had fatigue consistent with secondary initiation due to load shedding from the original failed tooth; the crankshaft gear failure was also secondary. Microstructural examination and hardness testing was performed on a section of a camshaft tooth, which met drawing specifications. A thin layer of decarburization was observed on the surface.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.