ATL83AA235 · Cessna 421A
Cessna 421A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Pensacola International Airport (PNS) to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83AA235
- 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
- 8 · 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
Cessna 421A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N2960Q
- Operator
- E. Mason Adom
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pensacola International Airport (PNS), Pensacola, FLTo St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), ST.LOUIS, MO
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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(vmc), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, premature
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 20 MINS AFTER TAKEOFF THE PLT REPORTED THE RIGHT ENG HAD LOST POWER & THE ACFT WOULD NOT MAINTAIN ALT. VECTORS WERE PROVIDED FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING, BUT THE ACFT CRASHED IN A WOODED AREA ABOUT 3 MI FROM THE ARPT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE GEAR & FLAPS HAD BEEN EXTENDED & THE ACFT HAD ENTERED A TURN BEFORE IMPACTING. BOTH PROPS HAD EVIDENCEOF LOW TO MODERATE POWER & NEITHER WAS FEATHERED. AN EXAM REVEALED UNSYMMETRICAL WEAR ON THE BLADES OF THE RIGHT TURBO- CHARGER; ITS THRUST SPACER, PN 406990-9004, WAS WORN & THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF OIL LEAKAGE. THE 13 QT, RIGHT ENG OIL SYS HAD ONLY 6.85 QTS OF OIL REMAINING. BOTH TURBOCHARGERS HAD BEEN INSTALLED DURING AN ANNUAL INSPECTION IN APRIL 1983 & PREVIOUSLY HAD BEEN OVERHAULED. THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 844 LBS OVER ITS MAX WT LIMIT & THE AFT CG LIMIT WAS EXCEEDED BY ABOUT 4.8 INCHES. SIX OF THE PASSENGERS WERE NOT RESTRAINED BY SEAT BELTS. AN ASSOCIATE ESTIMATED THAT THE PLT HAD ONLY 4 TO 6 HRS OF REST IN THE PREVIOUS 3 TO 4 DAYS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83AA235
- Event ID
- 20001214X43188
- Case number
- ATL83AA235
- 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 1983-06-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d029ec8f2ed799d648da46fca22358f1a30aa366b162befae88a543af75d6585; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:37:10.365Z.