CEN24LA152
2024-04-05 · Galveston, Texas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport GLS
Current FAA registration · N9996V
- Make / Model
- BELLANCA 17-30A
- Year of manufacture
- 1971 · 53 years old at event
- Engine
- CONT MOTOR IO 520 SERIES (285 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 4 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19710123
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S ADF750
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
Maintenance personnel’s failure to properly secure the oil filter adapter when replacing the oil filter adapter gasket which resulted in the filter becoming loose, resulting in the loss of engine oil, and the subsequent total loss of engine power.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that while in cruise flight he briefly had smoke in the cockpit. The smoke dissipated and after being cleared to land, the engine quit suddenly, and the propeller stopped rotating. He alerted the tower and immediately retracted the landing gear and flaps and established best glide airspeed. When landing was assured, he lowered the landing gear, but the right main landing gear did not extend. The right wing struck a runway light and was substantially damaged. Post-accident examination by the mechanic who worked on the airplane a few days prior to the accident revealed that the safety wire he cut while performing a gasket replacement on the oil filter adapter had not been removed and replaced. It is likely that because the cut safety wire was not replaced and secured when the filter adapter gasket was replaced, the filter became loose during engine operation which allowed for engine oil to leak out resulting in the subsequent loss of engine power due to oil starvation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.
- — Aircraft-Aircraft power plant-Eng oil sys (airframe furnish)-(general)-Related maintenance info
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Maintenance-Installation-Maintenance personnel
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2024_CEN24LA152.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
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- Pilots of America Community ↗
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (maintenance). All research papers
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA) From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- Semantic Scholar 2026 · Article (Reliability Engineering & System Safety) Understanding human error in military aviation maintenance: The role of Performance shaping factors, cognitive workload and error orientation
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences) Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Semantic Scholar 2024 · Article (Defence Science Journal) Modelling of Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance Using HFACS ME Human Factors Analysis and Classification System Maintenance Extension and Bayesian Network
Aircraft maintenance is a complex task involving a skilled human workforce, spare parts, and various other resources. Human factors are an inherent element of the human workforce.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER) A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER) Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…