Wick – Le Touquet

On April 9, 2014 at 02:47 PM, Wick – Le Touquet experienced a crash involving Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, operated by Aeroflight Executive Services, with the event recorded near Stonehaven Aberdeenshire.

The flight was categorized as delivery and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

1 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft was on a ferry flight from Seattle in the USA to Thailand via Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and across Europe. However the flight crew abandoned the aircraft in Greenland late in December 2013 after experiencing low oil pressure indications on both engines. This may have been due to the use of an incorrect grade of oil for cold weather operations. The aircraft remained in Greenland until 28 February 2014, when a replacement ferry pilot was engaged. Although the engine oil was not changed prior to departing Greenland, the flight continued uneventfully to Wick, in Scotland. Following some maintenance activity on the right engine, the aircraft departed for Le Touquet in France. However, approximately 25 minutes after takeoff, the engines successively lost power and the pilot carried out a forced landing in a ploughed field. Examination of the engines revealed that one piston in each engine had suffered severe heat damage, consistent with combustion gases being forced past the piston and into the crankcase.

Aircraft reference details include registration N66886, MSN 31-7405188, year of manufacture 1974.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 56.9640°, -2.2088°.