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Atlas / NTSB / MIA94LA194

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MIA94LA194

1994-08-11 WAYNESBORO, Mississippi, United States Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N10JB

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

DG-FLUGZEUGBAU GMBH LS 10-S

Year of manufacture

2008

Engine

NONE NONE

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20090117

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A00325

Registrant of record

BOJACK JOHN

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

AN ENGINE FAILURE DUE TO IMPROPER MAINTENANCE [OVERHAUL] OF THE ENGINE CRANKSHAFT.

Factual narrative

On August 11, 1994, about 1630 central daylight time, an Aerosport Quail, homebuilt airplane, N10JB, registered to Henry W. Schmidt, crashed into a corn field after the engine quit while climbing to the traffic pattern at the Waynesboro Municipal Airport, Waynesboro, Mississippi. The flight was a 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight in the local area and no flight plan was filed. The airplane was substantially damaged and the private- rated pilot received minor injuries. The flight had originated about 15 minutes earlier from the Wayneboro, Mississippi Airport. Examination of the wreckage by FAA personnel revealed no signs of rotational damage on the propeller, and when it was rotated by hand, travel was limited to about 45 degrees either direction. The conversion Volkswagen engine was removed and transported to a local shop for teardown. The teardown revealed that the crankshaft had been installed by an unknown person without the required end play. Without the end play the main bearing failed and the dowel rods scored into the crankshaft. THE EXPERIMENTAL HOMEBUILT AIRPLANE HAD JUST REACHED CRUISE ALTITUDE WHEN THE ENGINE FAILED. THE PILOT EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING TO A CORNFIELD AND THE AIRPLANE WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE CRANKSHAFT HAD SEIZED DUE TO THE CRANKSHAFT HAVING NO END PLAY, AS REQUIRED. THE CRANKSHAFT MAIN BEARING HAD ALSO FAILED ALLOWING THE DOWEL RODS TO SCORE INTO THE CRANKSHAFT. THE LOGBOOKS WERE INCOMPLETE; THE PERSON WHO INSTALLED THE CRANKSHAFT COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1994_MIA94LA194.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, engine failure, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗