Had something similar happen years ago. A buddy and I took off from West Memphis, Ar in a C-47 loaded with freight for Mexico at 0100. Got about 15 miles out when one of the bottom cylinders on the right engine went into the cowling. The cylinder jammed in the cowling and the piston was hitting it making a really nice shower of sparks going around inside the cowling and a noise like a playing card in the spokes of a bicycle only louder. There was enough of the cylinder left on the block so that the bottom ring on the piston didn't come out, so all the oil didn't pump out right away. Made it back to base ok, but when we touched down and pulled the power back out of the left engine came a huge ball of flame that lit up the cockpit brighter than day. Fuel pump off, mag off and we were ok. We off loaded the freight, replaced the cylinder and piston, beat the cowling into shape with a hammer, used a cargo strap to hold the cowling together and flew back to home base in Texas at less than 500 agl where we did a home made gps approach. El Jeffe had to get someone else to fly the load that time. Good times my friends, good times.
