diff --git a/api/src/opentrons/protocol_engine/execution/queue_worker.py b/api/src/opentrons/protocol_engine/execution/queue_worker.py
index 67f8f17b42c..a50d82282d5 100644
--- a/api/src/opentrons/protocol_engine/execution/queue_worker.py
+++ b/api/src/opentrons/protocol_engine/execution/queue_worker.py
@@ -69,7 +69,11 @@ async def join(self) -> None:
 
     async def _run_commands(self) -> None:
         async for command_id in self._command_generator():
-            await self._command_executor.execute(command_id=command_id)
+            try:
+                await self._command_executor.execute(command_id=command_id)
+            except BaseException:
+                log.exception('Unhandled failure in command executor')
+                raise
             # Yield to the event loop in case we're executing a long sequence of commands
             # that never yields internally. For example, a long sequence of comment commands.
             await asyncio.sleep(0)