MKC88LA142 · Shirlan Dickey E-RACER
Shirlan Dickey E-RACER · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Dubuque, IA to Oshkosh, WI
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88LA142
- 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
Shirlan Dickey E-RACER
- Aircraft type
- Shirlan Dickey E-RACER
- 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
- N131RD
- Operator
- Shirlan Dickey
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dubuque, IATo Oshkosh, WI
- 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 (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
- Engine instruments, tachometer › Shorted
- Ignition system › Shorted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT A FUEL STOP IN DUBUQUE, IA THE PIC PURCHASED FUEL FOR THE FINAL LEG OF HIS FLT TO OSHKOSH. AFTER A PRE-FLT CHK AND SUBSEQUENT ENG RUNUP, THE PIC TOOK THE ACTIVE RWY AND COMMENCED A TAKEOFF ROLL. THE LIFT OFF AND INITIAL CLIMB WENT WITHOUT DIFFICULTY UNTIL THE ACFT ATTAINED 200 FT ALTITUDE. THE PIC STATED THAT THE ENG QUIT SUDDENLY AND WITHOUT WARNING. WITH NO CLEAR SPOT AHEAD TO MAKE THE FORCED LANDING, THE PIC TURNED 180 DEGREES IN AN ATTEMPT TO LAND BACK ON THE RWY. DURING THE DESCENT THE PIC ATTEMPTED A RESTART WHICH FAILED. UNABLE TO REACH THE RWY THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN IN A GRASSY AREA ADJACENT TO THE RWY. THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED, FOLLOWED BY TOTAL GEAR COLLAPSE. THE ACFT SLID TO A STOP. SUBSEQUENT INSP OF THE ACFT REVEALED A SHORTED IGNITION SYSTEM, ORIGINATING IN A ELECTRIC TACH. IN HIS ACCIDENT RPT THE PIC STATED THAT ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REDUNDANCY WAS NOW A HIGH PRIORITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88LA142
- Event ID
- 20001213X26348
- Case number
- MKC88LA142
- 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: ecf276155ab06fad40f5e993c0756d09443ef9cbb40c4bd0883e2180b98d1b4a; retrieved 2026-09-23T09:24:28.092Z.