Apa International Air Douglas DC-6B incident
Douglas DC-6B · Incident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to SDO · Santo Domingo
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85IA120
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Douglas DC-6B
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-6
- 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
- N55CA
- Operator
- Apa International Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo SDO · Santo Domingo
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Engine assembly › Failure, total
- Engine assembly › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
CREW STATED THAT ON TAKEOFF ROLL THE NUMBER FOUR ENGINE FAILED AND AN ABORTED TAKEOFF WAS INTIATED. DURING THE DECELLERATION AFTER THE THROTTLES WERE CLOSED THE NUMBER FOUR ENGINE SEIZED AND THE NUMBER FOUR PROPELLER SEPARATED WHEN THE PROPELLER SHAFT FAILED. INSPECTION OF THE PROPELLER SHAFT REVEALED IT SHEARED OFF EIGHT INCHES FROM THE TIP,AND EXHIBITED NO EVIDENCE OF A PRIOR CRACK. INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE OIL SCREENS REVEALED THE PRECENTS OF METAL CONTAMINATION. THE OPERATOR HAD NO PLANS TO DISASSEMBLE THE ENGINE. BUT PLANNED TO EXCHANGE IT FOR AN OVERHAULED ENGINE. THE EXPCT CAUSE OF THE ENGINES INTERNAL FAILURE WAS NOT DETERMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85IA120
- Event ID
- 20001214X35981
- Case number
- MIA85IA120
- 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: ebbd3bd6d85760d12e25df22e1b7b640fa7f599696a26796b38cbe7f5bc0a74b; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:30:04.502Z.