Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Jean, Nevada 89019
Thursday, November 8, 2007 19:37 PST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The airplane lost engine power while in cruise flight on a dark night. The pilot had been in contact with the local area Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility and reported the situation to the controller. The pilot indicated that he was in-between airports and did not want to risk a turn back to the departure airport due to the dark night and mountainous terrain conditions. After reporting the power loss, the pilot lost radio contact with the controller and decided to attempt a landing on the desert floor. The pilot landed the airplane gear up and struck desert shrubbery, which caused structural damage to the airplane. The pilot stated that the engine sounded as if it had lost a cylinder or a valve and it was running "weakly." A review of the airplane’s logbooks revealed that the airplane had flown 14 hours since the last 100-hour/annual inspections. The factory-remanufactured engine had been installed on June 15, 2001, and had a total time of 717 hours. An engine teardown was performed and investigators noted that several camshaft gear teeth were missing, some of which were found in the oil sump. A metallurgical examination of the camshaft gear and teeth revealed signatures consistent with normal wear. Many of the surfaces on the camshaft gear had been damaged due to continued operation after the teeth separation. A fracture surface at the site of a missing tooth showed evidence of fatigue initiating at the surface. The metallurgist noted surface marks at the root on both sides of each tooth. Hardness was tested between the gear teeth on both parts and was found to meet component specifications based on the R30N scale.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The loss of engine power as a result of a fatigue failure of the camshaft gear teeth. Contributing to the accident were the dark night lighting conditions and the rough, uneven terrain the airplane encountered during the forced landing.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 11/8/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 1937 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Standard Time |
| Event City | Jean |
| Event State | NEVADA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 89019 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 11 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 354515N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1151600W |
| 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 | 1956 Pacific Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 220 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | HND |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 2492 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 10 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PST |
| Lighting Conditions | Night/Dark |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 25000 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 18000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Few |
| 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) | 21 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 0 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 250 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 3 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.96 |
| 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) | 24420 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA AWP Operations Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | Nov 8 2007 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 22 2008 12:07PM |
| User who most recently changed record | lema |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-LAS-FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N3627B |
| NTSB Number | LAX08LA027 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | BEECH |
| Aircraft Model | A36 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | E1707 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3600 |
| 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 | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Sep 1 2007 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 14 |
| Airframe Hours | 4451.4 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Yes |
| ELT Type | Unknown |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Fin Plan Air Service LLC |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Phoenix |
| Aircraft Owner State | AZ |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 85023 |
| 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 | USA |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| 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 | LAS |
| Departure City | LAS VEGAS |
| Departure State | NV |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1845 |
| Departure Time Zone | PST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | DVT |
| Destination City | Phoenix |
| Destination State | AZ |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Cruise |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 31 2008 1:45PM |
| User who most recently changed record | coos |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | N/A |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |