MKC86FCA01 · Bede Aircraft BD-5B
Bede Aircraft BD-5B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI) to Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC86FCA01
- 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
- 1 · 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
Bede Aircraft BD-5B
- Aircraft type
- Bede BD-5
- 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
- N548BD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI)To Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI)
- 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 · climb to 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)
- 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
- Stall/spin
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Ignition system, high tension wiring › Disconnected
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OWNER/BUILDER HAD HIRED THE PLT TO TEST FLY THE ACFT ON ITS INITIAL FLT. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT TRANSMITTED THAT HE HAD AN ENG PROBLEM. HE WAS CLEARED FOR AN IMMEDIATE LANDING & ENTERED A DOWNWIND FOR RWY 28. AS HE CONTINUED & WAS TURNING FROM A BASE TO FINAL APCH, THE ACFT ENTERED A SPIN IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. THE ACFT IMPACTED ON THE EDGE OF AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY WHILE IN A STEEP NOSE-DOWN ATTITUDE. AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THE #1 CYCLINDER SPARK PLUG WIRE WAS COMPLETELY DETACHED; THE #2 CYLINDER WIRE WAS DETACHED FROM THE SPARK PLUG (ALTHO ITS DUST BOOT WAS STILL CONNECTED); & THE #4 SPARK PLUG WIRE DUST BOOT SHOWED EVIDENCE OF HAVING COME IN CONTACT WITH AN ADJACENT EXHAUST STACK & WAS BURNED UNTIL THERE WAS SEPARATION AT THE BOOT'S MIDPOINT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC86FCA01
- Event ID
- 20001214X38102
- Case number
- MKC86FCA01
- 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: 52f37900fc78e128592333d8ba648bef8e0d8e3d7bee3a040e541fd6dac21ed1; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:47:32.149Z.