Piper PA34 N16499

Summary

On 19 August 2016 at about 15:30 local time, a Piper PA34 registered N16499, operated by American Flight Training LLC, was involved in an accident near Hollywood, Florida, United States. 2 people were 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

19 August 2016 at 15:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Hollywood, Florida, United States

Coordinates

26.0267, -80.5928

Aircraft

Piper PA34

Registration

N16499

Category

Airplane

Year built

1973

Engines

2

Operator

American Flight Training LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Hollywood → Hollywood

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA16LA295

Nobody was injured.

Maintenance personnel’s failure to comply with an airworthiness directive for the propeller, which resulted in a propeller hub failure due to fatigue.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During an instructional flight in a multiengine airplane, the pilot receiving instruction had just completed a right turn at an altitude of 3,300 ft mean sea level when the flight instructor heard a loud noise and saw something separate from the right engine. The flight instructor took the controls but was unable to maintain altitude with one engine operating and performed a forced landing into a swamp. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the right engine had separated from its mounts, one propeller blade was missing, and the right propeller hub was fractured. Metallurgical examination of the propeller hub revealed a fatigue fracture along a grease-fitting hole. An airworthiness directive had been issued about 8 years before the accident that required initial (within 50 flight hours) and repetitive (every 100 flight hours) eddy current inspection of the area around the lubrication holes of the propeller hub blade sockets. The right propeller had been overhauled about 14 months before the accident and had accrued about 440 hours at the time of the accident. The airplane's most recent 100-hour inspection (which included inspection of both propellers) occurred about 3 months before the accident. Review of maintenance records did not reveal any documentation that the airworthiness directive was complied with on the overhauled right propeller hub.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.