MKC84FA221 · Morgan T. Melton SKY RIDER
Morgan T. Melton SKY RIDER · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC84FA221
- 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
Morgan T. Melton SKY RIDER
- Aircraft type
- Morgan T Melton SKY RIDER
- 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
- N39963
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Partial 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OWNER/BULDER STATED THAT HE & HIS BROTHER HAD BEEN HAVING AN ENG PROBLEM WHICH THEY ASSUMED WAS DUE TO A VAPOR LOCK. THEY HAD INSTALLED A METAL BOX AROUND THE ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP TO INSULATE IT FROM THE HEAT OF THE EXHAUST PIPE. THE BROTHER INITIATED A HI SPEED TAXI TEST & WAS NOT SUPPOSE TO HAVE TAKEN OFF. HOWEVER, THE ACFT BECAME AIRPORNE, CLIMBED ABOUT 500 FT, THEN TURNED ONTO A DOWNWIND LEG OF THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE ENG BEGAN LOOSING POWER. THE ACFT CONTINUED ON DOWNWIND & TURNED ON A BASE LEG. AT ABOUT 200 FT AGL, DURING A STEEP TURN TO FINAL, THE ACFT STALLED & CRASHED. THE CARBURETOR WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT. ABNORMAL WEAR MARKS WERE NOTED ON THE LOWER EDGE OF THE PRIMARY VENTURE. THE MAGNETO SWITCH WAS FOUND IN THE 'OFF' POSITION & THE KEYS WERE FOUND ABOUT 14 FT AWAY. THIS WAS THE ACFT'S 1ST TEST FLT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC84FA221
- Event ID
- 20001214X40410
- Case number
- MKC84FA221
- 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 1984-07-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 05d30cd5d06d8d9d35173b27e3655fcfd25eb141147aa1c76abaa4f0ba9966d7; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:26:08.330Z.