LAX99LA279 · Bellanca 7ECA
Attitude Aviation Bellanca 7ECA · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA279
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bellanca 7ECA
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 7
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N88408
- Operator
- Attitude Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Company/operator management › Maintenance, overhaul, not performed
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the takeoff initial climb a partial loss of power was experienced, with the rpm's decreasing to 1,500 accompanied by roughness. The CFI took the controls from the student, made a 180-degree turn back to the runway, and landed hard on a taxiway. Both pilots indicated that there were no discrepancies noted with the preflight, engine start, taxi, or run-up. During the engine examination the number 3 exhaust valve was found broken, and the head found embedded in the piston. A review of the engine logbook revealed that the engine had accumulated 3,711.0 hours since the last major overhaul, which took place on November 30, 1993. According to the engine manufacturer, 2,400 hours or 12 calendar years is the maximum recommended time between overhaul. A Lycoming Mandatory Service Bulletin addresses the need to inspect exhaust valves and valve guides to prevent sticking and possible failure due to excessive guide wear. The bulletin recommends an inspection at 400-hour intervals. No record was found in the logbooks of compliance with the bulletin.
Probable cause
The failure of the no. 3 cylinder exhaust valve due to the operator's failure to adhere to recommended overhaul periods set by the engine manufacturer. A factor in the accident was the operator's failure to comply with the manufacturer's mandatory service bulletin.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA279
- Event ID
- 20001212X19562
- Case number
- LAX99LA279
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8068b667bdb6b72b2b3e887d3396bcfb4d3ab737e073082603056aa89bdecfd9; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:16:01.349Z.