MKC88LA060 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Rosecrans Memorial Airport (STJ) to Gould Peterson Municipal Airport (K57)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88LA060
- 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
Piper PA-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N7703J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rosecrans Memorial Airport (STJ), ST. JOSEPH, MOTo Gould Peterson Municipal Airport (K57), Tarkio, MO
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC, AFTER AN EARLIER LNDG AT TARKIO, MISSOURI AND AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO REACH HIS FISHING PARTNER, FLEW HIS ACFT TO AND LANDED AT ST. JOSEPH ROSECRANS ARPT. AFTER CONTACTING HIS FRIEND, AND CATCHING A FEW HOURS OF SLEEP, THE PIC MADE AN EARLY MORNING DEPARTURE FOR TARKIO, LOCATED NORTHWEST OF ST. JOSEPH. THE PIC RPTD FOG FORMING DURING THE FLT AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE TARKIO ARPT WAS NOT MADE. AFTER 2 ATTEMPTS TO LOCATE THE ARPT THE PIC MODIFIED HIS COURSE TO LAND AT ANOTHER ARPT HE HAD SPOTTED EARLIER. THE PIC RPTD THAT FOG HAD NOW OBSCURED THAT ARPT AND HE TURNED AND HEADED SOUTHWEST. AS A LAST RESORT THE PIC PLANNED TO ATTEMPT A LNDG ON THE INTERSTATE HWY NEAR MOUND CITY. THE PIC RPTD EXHAUSTING HIS FUEL SUPPLY BEFORE REACHING THE INTERSTATE AND A FORCED LNDG WAS EXECUTED TO A FIELD NORTHWEST OF MOUND CITY, MISSOURI. THE PIC STATED HE HAD KNOWLEDGE OF THE POTENTIAL OF ENCOUNTERING DETERIORATING WX BUT PRESSED ON KNOWING HIS DEST WAS ONLY 20 MINUTES AWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88LA060
- Event ID
- 20001213X25317
- Case number
- MKC88LA060
- 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: 7b76e0042ee6caa3bd60bb7b26e3dbada38bbff5d7f8a6dbbdc12b9dfc3ef64d; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:53:18.991Z.