MIA83LA186 · Bellanca 7ACA
Bellanca 7ACA · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH) to X 51 · HOMESTEAD GNRL., FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA83LA186
- 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
- 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
Bellanca 7ACA
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 7
- 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
- N68556
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH), Marathon, FLTo X 51 · HOMESTEAD GNRL., FL
- 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 · 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE 'TOPPED OFF' HIS FUEL TANK WITH 12 GAL OF FUEL AT HOMESTEAD, FL. HE THEN FLEW TO THE PORT LARGO ARPT AT KEY LARGO, FL AND TO THE MARATHON ARPT, MARATHON, FL, BUT DID NOT REPORT OBTAINING ADDITIONAL FUEL. WHILE EN ROUTE BACK TO HOMESTEAD, THE ENG LOST POWER. DURING A LANDING IN A CYPRESS SWAMP, THE LANDING GEAR SUNK IN DEEP MUD & THE ACFT NOSED OVER, AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED NO PREIMPACT/MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE, EXCEPT THAT THE CABLE FROM THE BATTERY TO THE STARTER WAS BROKEN THRU 70% OF THE WIRES. THE PLT NOTED THAT THE STARTER WOULD NOT TURN THE PROPELLER WHEN HE ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE ENG. ALSO, THE ELT BATTERY WAS OVERDUE FOR A CHANGE & THE ELT DID NOT WORK. HOWEVER, THE DOWNED ACFT WAS SPOTTED BY ANOTHER PLT & AN AIR FORCE HELICOPTER WAS DISPATCHED TO EVACUATE THE PLT & PASSENGER. THE ENG WOULD CONSUME APRX 3.7 GAL/HR AT 75% POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA83LA186
- Event ID
- 20001214X43853
- Case number
- MIA83LA186
- 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 1983-07-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6a985308ae09c51bc553c55766bc1608b3e7f2e5ddc9a9c199dc06eb9fb91184; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:45:05.633Z.