Piper PA-24-250 N5097P

Summary

On 3 October 2006 at about 16:30 local time, a Piper PA-24-250 registered N5097P was involved in an accident near Hammonton, New Jersey, 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

3 October 2006 at 16:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Hammonton, New Jersey, United States

Nearest airport

Hammonton Muni (N81)

Coordinates

39.6717, -74.7550

Aircraft

Piper PA-24-250

Registration

N5097P

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Cross Keys → Hammonton

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

NYC07LA001

Nobody was injured.

Displacement of the idler gear assembly, which resulted in a loss of camshaft timing, and a subsequent engine failure. Contributing to the accident was the swampy terrain condition.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane was on a base leg to the airport when the engine lost power, and the pilot performed a forced landing to a swampy area short of the runway. A subsequent examination of the engine revealed that within the accessory section, the idler gear assembly, which normally transferred power from the crankshaft to the left magneto and the camshaft, had been displaced. The mounting shaft had also been displaced, and the shaft hole was elongated. The upper portions of both shaft mounting plate retaining screws were missing. The lower screw appeared to be sheared, while the remnant of the upper screw exhibited mechanical damage. The crankcase surface area around the upper screw hole exhibited fretting, and the idler gear had missing and damaged gear teeth. Remnants of the shaft mounting plate retaining screws and screw lockplate were found in the bottom of the crankcase. The engine operating time was below the recommended time between overhaul (TBO). However, the manufacturer also recommended an overhaul if the TBO was not reached within the previous 12 years, and the accident engine had not been overhauled in over 30 years. The failure sequence could not be determined, and although an excessive amount of time had passed since the previous overhaul, the lack of an overhaul could not be correlated to the displacement of the idler gear assembly.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.