N114DZ

On August 26, 2023, at 1738 eastern daylight time, a Nanchang CJ-6A, N114DZ, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Merrickville, New York. The airline transport pilot and pilot-rated passenger sustained serious injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.

The airplane departed Dewitt Field/Old Town Municipal Airport (OLD), Old Town, Maine, at 1518 with a destination of State College Regional Airport (UNV), State College, Pennsylvania, which was about 473 miles southwest. While enroute, the pilot realized that due to weather and air traffic control (ATC) deviations, he would not have the required fuel reserves to continue the flight to UNV. He decided to divert to Greater Binghamton Airport/Edwin A Link Field (BGM), Binghamton, New York, which was 117 nautical miles northeast of UNV. Subsequently, about 40 nautical miles from BGM, the engine sustained a total loss of power.

The pilot reported completing the engine failure in flight emergency procedure. He reported that the airplane had about 1 hour of fuel remaining on board at the time of the loss of power. He switched the magneto from right to left multiple times and both were only effective for a few seconds each before the engine lost power again. The pilot-rated passenger reported that, while the pilot began to address the engine failure, he called ATC and declared an emergency. ATC gave the pilot a radar vector to the closest airport, but the pilot determined that they would not be able to glide that distance and began to look for a place to make a forced landing. With no suitable fields in the vicinity, the pilot reported that, “I felt the safest course of action was to ditch into trees.” The airplane impacted multiple trees and came to rest on its right side. The impact resulted in substantial damage to both wings, the fuselage, and left horizontal stabilizer.

A witness who lived near the accident site was outside her home when she saw a “small green airplane descending.” She stated that, “There was no sound whatsoever coming from the plane, he quickly lost altitude and descended into the tree line.” She also reported that, about 200 yards from the accident site, there was a “slight smell of fuel,” which she followed to find the site. A video was recorded by another witness near the accident site that recorded the sound of the airplane’s engine cutting in and out before ultimately going silent.

Postaccident examination of the wreckage found that the flight control stick moved freely by hand with no binding. The throttle control was full open, the mixture control was 3/4 toward the full rich position, the carburetor heat was on, and the fuel selector was on. There were no residual fuel vapors in either of the wing fuel tanks; however, the smell of fuel was present at the site. The front spark plugs were removed and about 2 quarts of fuel ran out of the spark plug hole of one cylinder. Compression and suction were confirmed on all cylinders when the crankshaft was rotated by hand using the propeller. Valvetrain continuity was confirmed on all but one cylinder, which exhibited impact damage to the push rods, when the crankshaft was rotated by hand using the propeller. Both magnetos were removed and produced spark on all leads when rotated using an electric drill. The fuel screen was removed and exhibited no debris; there was slight corrosion inside the fuel screen housing. The oil filter was removed and cut open; the filter pleats contained a small number of metallic fragments. The cylinders were not labeled and were marked arbitrarily; there was a hole on the No. 1 cylinder intake tube with a piece missing; this piece was not found during the examination.

Review of maintenance records indicated that the airplane’s fuel capacity was increased in 2014 to 64 gallons total, with 2 gallons of unusable fuel. The pilot reported that they had departed on the flight with 62 gallons of 100 low-lead (100LL) aviation fuel on board. Fuel records showed that the pilot purchased 28.9 gallons of 100LL two days before the accident flight. The pilot reported that he used a fuel consumption rate of 16 gallons per hour while flight planning and that he did not operate the airplane for more than 3 hours. This would result in the airplane having an endurance of about 3.8 hours; the accident occurred about 2.6 hours into the flight.