Shortly after takeoff for the cross-country, personal flight, the Piper PA28’s engine suddenly lost partial power.
The pilot made a forced landing to a corn field near New Market, Virginia. During that landing, the left main landing gear penetrated the left wing and separated from the airplane, the nose landing gear collapsed, and the firewall and engine mount sustained substantial damage.
Post-accident examination of the engine did not reveal evidence of any pre-accident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
The carburetor exhibited no external damage, however when the air box and alternate air control were removed, a dead mouse fell out of the intake manifold.
Probable cause: A loss of engine power on takeoff due to restricted air flow to the engine.
NTSB Identification: ERA19LA033
This October 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.
Aircraft hangars are ideal places for mice. Most of the time they are dark and quiet, nobody is there and nothing moves. There are lots of nooks and crannies, and plenty of stuff to destroy to make nests out of. They also love to chew wiring, especially on newer cars which use soy-based insulation. This means if you park a late model car in your hangar and leave it there, you are inviting mice to the party.
A mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime (!), so making most hangars mouse-proof is impossible. As far as mice are concerned, the gaps between the doors are a superhighway, and the grass around most hangars is an ideal place for them to plan their invasion.
Mousetraps work, bait them with a little cheap peanut butter smeared onto some cotton, which is wired to the trigger. If you don’t fasten the cotton to the trigger, the mice will take it off and never trip the mousetrap. If you do wire it on (a single strand of copper wire works well), when they tug the cotton, SNAP, game over (for that mouse, anyway).
Your nose will advise you when you’ve caught (another) mouse. Wear disposable latex gloves and throw out the mousetrap, too. Mice have an excellent sense of smell and can tell if something has killed one of their buddies. They’ll avoid that trap forever.
Poisons also work, but have two major disadvantages. First, your pets may sample the bait and that can kill them. Second, the poisoned mice don’t die immediately, but will crawl into the most inaccessible place in your hangar or airplane and die there, Then you have to borrow a gas mask and find the corpse, which you don’t want to touch without latex gloves because mice carry diseases and also fleas.
Mice are a problem . . . I use four or five traps, change their location from time to time, baited with peanut butter and cotton, and visit my hangar once or twice a day (including after dark, my hangar is only 90 feet from my house) so there is “activity”. I still get half a dozen mice a year in the traps, and I’ve sealed every opening I can find, removed all sources of food, and inspect regularly. I also mow around the hangar to keep the grass short. (We have hawks in the area, they do a great job of mouse control outside the buildings!)
Something to be aware of is that if you have someone working on the building, they may leave openings for the mice. I have a wireless internet tower on my hangar, the installer ran an RJ45 cable through a 1″ diameter hole, down near the ground in some tall grass I can’t get to in order to mow. Needless to say, I had to seal that up without delay. Seal holes like that with steel wool and caulk, the steel wool discourages gnawing.
You might think that a “hangar cat” would be the ideal answer. No, it isn’t. You have to feed and water the cat daily, make sure it doesn’t wander off, climb on “stuff” or, if it is an unaltered male, spray everywhere, which will make eau-de-dead-mouse smell like perfume.
Ultrasonic mouse repellers are a waste of time, their only function is to separate you from your money, and they seem to do that pretty well.
Don’t tolerate “a few” mice, they breed very rapidly and you’ll soon have an infestation. They will do a lot of damage, and you’ll also get to pay for a professional exterminator to get rid of them. The stink will stay on, though. If you see one mouse, there are plenty more hiding, so go buy traps and fix it now.
(This isn’t taught in Aircraft Ownership 101, I wonder why not?)
WOW..! That’s a new one to me. I’ve had bugs in the pitot tube causing my ASI to swing wildly, and a wasp in the cabin [ panick !].
It’s a good thing that the mouse didn’t get past the throttle plate….and go where ?
Did someone leave and alternate air open ?
Dead mouse? I smell a rat!