Flight Trails Convair 440 accident
Convair 440 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From BMH · Birmingham, AL to University Oxford Airport (UOX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA85AA006
- 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
- 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
Convair 440
- Aircraft type
- Convair 440
- 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
- N44828
- Operator
- Flight Trails
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BMH · Birmingham, ALTo University Oxford Airport (UOX), Oxford, MS
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Engine assembly › Failure, total
- Engine assembly › Fire
- Landing gear, tire › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER CLIMBING & LEVELING AT 6000 FT, THE R ENG BMEP GAGE INDICATED A RAPID POWER LOSS & THE R ENG RPM 'INCREASED OUT OF CONTROL' TO ABOUT 3100 RPM. THE AIRCREW RETARDED THE R THROTTLE & REDUCED THE R ENG TO 2100 PRM BY USING THE PROP INCREASE/DECREASE TOGGLE SW. THE AIRCREW WERE UNABLE TO FEATHER THE R PROP OR MAINTAIN ALT, SO THEY DIVERTED TO THE NEAREST ARPT (WALKER COUNTY). WHILE TURNING DOWNWIND FOR RWY 9, THE R ENG FIRE INDICATOR ACTIVATED & THE COPLT CONFIRMED A FIRE. BOTH FIRE BOTTLES WERE DISCHARGED & THE R PROP STOPPED ROTATING. INJECTION WATER FOR THE L ENG WAS EXHAUSTED & THE L ENG BEGAN BACKFIRING. THE CAPTAIN THEN MANEUVERED & LANDED ON RWY 27. AFTER TOUCHDOWN, THE R MAIN TIRES FAILED, THE ACFT VEERED OFF THE R SIDE OF THE RWY & HIT A DITCH & THE GEAR COLLAPSED. AN EXAM REVEALED THE #6 CYL LINK ROD &/OR PISTON IN THE R ENG HAD FAILED, RESULTING IN FURTHER DAMAGE TO THE ENG & #6 CYL. SUBSEQUENTLY, FIRE & HEAT CAUSED THE R ENG TO SEIZE & ALSO DAMGED THE R MAIN TIRES WHICH FAILED AT TOUCHDOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA85AA006
- Event ID
- 20001214X41751
- Case number
- DCA85AA006
- 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: 5c6b10dc6d62dede9305376e5defb61cf74dcc79d216394e484eb54ea5d3a798; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:33:39.509Z.