Skip to content

NYC91FA006

1990-10-07 · GRISWOLD, Connecticut, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport 5B4

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A BROKEN EHAUST VALVE SPRING THAT RESULTED IN A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN, AND FAILURE OF THE OCCUPANTS TO USE THEIR SHOULDER HARNESSES.

Factual narrative

THE PLT & PSGR WERE ON A LOCAL FLT AT NGT. PSNL AT THE ARPT NOTED THAT THE RWY LIGHTS HAD BEEN ACTIVATED, BUT NO ACFT WAS SEEN TO LAND. THE ACFT WAS FND THE NEXT MORNING ABOUT 6 MI NORTHEAST OF THE ARPT, WHERE IT HAD HIT TREES & CRASHED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED IT HAD IMPACTED TREES, WHILE IN A SHALLOW DSCNT. A LACK OF ROTATIONAL SCARRING WAS NOTED ON THE PROP; ONLY 1 BLADE WAS DEFORMED & ONLY 1 BLADE CONTAINED LEADING EDGE NICKS. THE FLAPS WERE FND IN THE FULLY EXTENDED (30 DEG) POSITION, BUT THE FLAP INDICATOR SHOWED ONLY 10 DEGS OF FLAPS. ABOUT 8 GAL OF FUEL WAS FOUND IN EACH WING TANK. A CHECK OF THE ENG REVEALED A LACK OF COMPRESSION IN THE #3 CYLINDER DUE TO A BROKEN EXHAUST VALVE SPRING. NO OTHER PRE-ACDNT ANOMALIES WERE FND. THE PLT & PSGR WERE NOT WEARING THEIR AVAILABLE SHOULDER HARNESSES. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_NYC91FA006.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.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type. All research papers