What happened
During a local familiarization and acceptance flight for a new owner, smoke entered the cockpit of the aircraft and the pilot experienced a loss of oil pressure. In response to the emergency, a precautionary landing was attempted on a soft, muddy, plowed farm field. The impact with the terrain resulted in substantial damage to the aircraft.
The investigation
Post-accident investigation determined that an oil cooler inlet line had ruptured. This rupture caused oil to drip onto the exhaust system, which produced the smoke observed in the cockpit and led to the subsequent loss of oil pressure. The investigated line was wrapped with asbestos and had become very brittle. This specific oil line was original equipment and had reached a total time of 2872 hours. Records indicated that the aircraft had recently undergone an annual inspection, having flown less than one hour since that service.