Soon after takeoff, the airplane’s engine cowling opened and began to swing back and forth. Concerned the cowling might fracture the windshield, the pilot reduced engine power to land straight ahead, but, after realizing that the runway remaining was insufficient, he attempted to climb and return to the runway at the airport in South Beloit, Illinois.
During his attempted go-around, the Piper PA32R began to descend and then hit a cornfield off the end of the runway. The pilot and a passenger suffered minor injuries, while another passenger suffered serious injuries.
Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal flight operations.
The pilot said he was very startled by the opening of the cowling, which distracted him from maintaining airspeed.
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain airspeed after being startled and distracted when the engine cowling opened during takeoff, which led to a subsequent impact with terrain.
NTSB Identification: CEN18LA328
This August 2018 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
The docket documentation of the FAA inspector conversation with the pilot was interesting:
“…Soon after takeoff, he heard a very loud pop and noticed the left engine cowling was
loose and flapping violently.
• Based on concerns the cowling would penetrate the windshield and injure the passenger,
he pulled the power back to land straight ahead, but realized not enough runway was
available to do so.
• The sudden and unexpected opening of the cowling was very startling and distracted him
from maintaining airspeed control.
• He attempted to go-around and return to the runway, but realized the airplane’s airspeed
was slow and a sink rate had developed. To avoid stalling the airplane, he pushed
forward on the yoke and the airplane impacted into a cornfield.”
The pilot also said the fasteners “broke” allowing the cowl to flap.
Could the accident have been prevented during the preflight? Dunno. I am not familiar with the cowl fasteners with that aircraft.
Wouldn’t that cowling effectively become a large speed brake once it pops up until it departs? And as such, wouldn’t it make it difficult to maintain Vy in a climb attitude? And so wouldn’t that make it hard to climb? Add to this a shallow turn and this plane is going to have a sink-rate that the stabilator can’t overcome.
And then, if one does not have the Landing Gear AutoExtend locked out, if that cowling interfered with the airflow past the mast of that auto-extend, the gear won’t even retract making this problem that much more difficult.
Pilot error? Really? Even if this guy were armed to deal with this as soon as it happened, I doubt this would have ended any better.
“Pilot error? Really?”
Think about your statement: A proper prefight might have saved lots of injuries/embarassment.
Pilot error: definitely!
Just something you might want to think about. It was a very interesting question I was asked by an instructor early in my flight training: Should the cowl suddenly blow off, will the engine run cooler or hotter?
It had happened with one of the training planes and it had been pre-flighted and the person flying it was a ways away from the airport on a cross-country. I don’t remember which Cessna it was (C15x or C172).
The answer is, it will overheat because the rear cylinders will not have air forced down across them to cool them.
So, that guy had done a preflight and the cowl blew off anyway. So how do you know this guy flying this six place plane didn’t do a pre-flight?