MKC89LA184 · Dormoy TKD BATHTUB TKD BATHTU
Dormoy TKD BATHTUB TKD BATHTU · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Hector International Airport (FAR) to Fergus Falls Municipal Airport - Einar Mickelson Field (FFM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89LA184
- 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
Dormoy TKD BATHTUB TKD BATHTU
- Aircraft type
- Dormoy TKD BATHTUB
- 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
- N812SS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hector International Airport (FAR), Fargo, NDTo Fergus Falls Municipal Airport - Einar Mickelson Field (FFM), Fergus Falls, MN
- 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
- Mixture control, cable › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT SAID THAT DURING FLT, THE ENG OF THE HOME BUILT ACFT LOST POWER OVER ROUGH TERRAIN. DURING AN EMERGENCY LANDING, THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED TALL GRASS, ROCKS, GOPHER MOUNDS & DOWNWARD SLOPING TERRAIN, AND WAS DAMAGED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE MIXTURE CONTROL CABLE (PIANO WIRE) HAD FAILED AT A BOLT WHERE IT ATTACHED TO THE MIXTURE CONTROL LEVER. THIS WAS THE 2ND FAILURE DURING THE FLT FROM FARGO, ND TO FERGUS FALLS, MN. THE 1ST FAILURE OCCURRED ABOUT 15 TO 20 MIN INTO THE FLT. THE PLT MADE A SUCCESSFUL FORCED LANDING AFTER THE 1ST FAILURE, THEN BORROWED SOME TOOLS & REPAIRED THE CABLE. THE 2ND FAILURE OCCURRED ABOUT 10 TO 15 MIN AFTER HE TOOK OFF TO CONTINUE THE FLT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE MIXTURE CONTROL CABLE AND INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE (REPAIR) BY THE PILOT. THE TERRAIN CONDITIONS WERE CONSIDERED TO BE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89LA184
- Event ID
- 20001213X29215
- Case number
- MKC89LA184
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-08-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3db12d4f901c834f376bdd3606d7062c0d2c09a26ed7ff2c1199a0c54473dcfe; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:04:03.543Z.