ATL89LA055 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) to Athens Ben Epps Airport (AHN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA055
- 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 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N14695
- Operator
- Morgan, Lawrence L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FLTo Athens Ben Epps Airport (AHN), Athens, GA
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Fluid, oil › Exhaustion
- Lubricating system, oil cooler › Leak
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Athens, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING DESCENT TOWARD HIS INTENDED DESTINATION, THE PILOT NOTED A FLOATING AMMETER NEEDLE AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER HE NOTED HIS OIL PRESSURE WAS ZERO. THE ENGINE SEIZED AND HE SELECTED A STRAIGHT STRETCH OF PAVED ROAD FOR HIS FORCED LANDING. IN THE FINAL STAGES OF THE APPROACH, A SEMI TRAILER OBSTRUCTED THE ROADWAY AND HE ELECTED TO LAND IN A WHEAT FIELD ADJACENT TO THE ROADWAY. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED EVIDENCE OF LACK OF LUBRICATION AND A SEPARATION OF A CONNECTING ROD. A FAN SHAPED OIL DEPOSIT WAS FOUND ON THE INSIDE OF THE BOTTOM ENGINE COWLING UNDER THE OIL COOLER. THE COOLER HAD BEEN INSTALLED 29 HOURS PREVIOUS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA055
- Event ID
- 20001213X27382
- Case number
- ATL89LA055
- 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: 0d0bd47ab4fe584f11c927ff0133658e85718c4a2b2746d5ed3b7f947a4ef97e; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:11:25.318Z.