Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Reno/Tahoe International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Reno, Nevada 89502
Sunday, July 15, 2007 16:17 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
During cruise flight at 17,000 feet mean sea level, the left turbocharger failed, resulting in a partial engine power loss. The pilot declared an emergency and executed an uneventful landing at an alternate airport. Examination of the turbocharger revealed the turbine wheel was separated from the shaft. Three prior incidents involving similar failures of this part number turbocharger had occurred in May 2007. Examination of the failed turbochargers from all four incidents revealed that all of the units displayed the same discrepancy: the compressor wheel backface perpendicularity to the bore exceeded the maximum permissible value. The source of the perpendicularity error was traced to a change, made in March 2007, to the machining process for the compressor wheel. The change involved a switch from a two-machine process to a three-machine process. This production change was made without formal documentation or coordination with other functional areas; no formal first-article inspection for the new process was performed. In April 2007, the machine shop returned to the original two-machine process. The compressor wheels manufactured during the time that the three-machine process was in use were installed in turbochargers produced from March 20 to April 20, 2007, including the four turbochargers involved in the subject incident and the three May 2007 incidents. The manufacturer issued service bulletins in July 2007 identifying the affected turbochargers by serial number and mandating their replacement. In August 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive requiring compliance with the service bulletins.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The failure of the left turbocharger as a result of a production defect in the unit's compressor due to a machining process change by the manufacturer that was made without formal documentation or substantiation.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 7/15/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 1617 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Reno |
| Event State | NEVADA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 89502 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 392957N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1194605W |
| Event Location Airport | Reno/Tahoe International |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | RNO |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 4415 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1556 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | RNO |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 4415 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 20000 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 15000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 34 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 3 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 200 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 9 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.02 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 24884 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA ROC |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 15 2007 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 6 2009 1:17PM |
| User who most recently changed record | stam |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Reno, NV |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N254SR |
| NTSB Number | SEA07IA201 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | None |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cirrus Design Corp. |
| Aircraft Model | SR22 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 2537 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3400 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 48 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | Unknown |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Aquatic Innovations Inc. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Alamo |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 94507 |
| Operator is an individual? | Yes |
| Operator Name | Lance H. Mortensen |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | Freedom |
| Operator State | WY |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 83120 |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | CCR |
| Departure City | Concord |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1510 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | RNO |
| Destination City | Reno |
| Destination State | NV |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Cruise |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 6 2009 1:17PM |
| User who most recently changed record | stam |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 16L |
| Runway Length | 9000 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |