Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Everett, Washington 98201
Saturday, July 14, 2007 13:21 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The day before the accident, the pilot had asked his mechanic to prepare two other airplanes for flight to a fly-in the following morning. The accident airplane had not flown in a year, nor had there been any entries in the maintenance logbooks in the last four years; it did not have a current condition inspection recorded in the logbooks. The mechanic said that he had been in the process of installing an intake oil drain kit, which drains oil from the lower 3 cylinders from a common quick drain. The mechanic said that the project was not complete, but it had progressed to the point that he had put new oil in the engine. On the morning of the accident, the pilot had to move the airplane out from the back of the hangar and install the engine cowling before flight. He flew to the airport where the fly-in was being held and landed without incident. On his return flight, as he approached the airport, he radioed the tower controller and said that his engine was running rough. Approximately two minutes later, he said that his engine had lost power, and he was going down. A witness on the ground said that he heard a loud bang and looked up to see blue-gray smoke coming from the airplane. Another witness said she saw the airplane making a low left turn, when it flipped inverted and spiraled to the ground. The airplane impacted in a residential area, approximately 15 feet behind a home. A post impact fire consumed the airplane. During an engine teardown, a cylinder was removed and significant heat distress was found on and around the main rod bearing. The main rod bearing was plastically deformed and broken; several connecting rods were bent and/or broken. Additionally, a heavy oil coating was found all along the bottom of the fuselage and most of the empennage was covered with oil. If the pilot had performed an adequate preflight before his return flight, it is likely that he would have noticed a significant loss of engine oil.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and inspection that led to oil exhaustion and a catastrophic engine failure. Also causal was the pilot's attempted operation of an aircraft with known deficiencies, and the lack of a current airworthiness inspection. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering following the engine failure.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 7/14/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Saturday |
| Time of Event | 1321 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Everett |
| Event State | WASHINGTON |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 98201 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 475811N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1221325W |
| Event Location Airport | -- |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | -- |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1253 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 190 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | PAE |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 606 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 3 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 23 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 14 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 310 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 7 |
| 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 | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | 1 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 23801 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA ROC |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 14 2007 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 30 2008 11:48AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Seattle, WA |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N55NH |
| NTSB Number | SEA07FA195 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | Ground |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Yakovlev |
| Aircraft Model | YAK-55M |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 920307 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- |
| 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 | 1 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Unknown |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Ernest N. Hernandez |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Seattle |
| Aircraft Owner State | WA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 98112 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| 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 | AWO |
| Departure City | Arlington |
| Departure State | WA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1300 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | PAE |
| Destination City | Everett |
| Destination State | WA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Approach - VFR pattern - base leg/base to final |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 10 2008 8:38PM |
| User who most recently changed record | STAM |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | NA |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |