MKC84FA005 · Bellanca 8KCAB
Bellanca 8KCAB · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Spirit of St Louis Airport (SUS) to Rolla Downtown Airport (K07)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC84FA005
- 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
- 2 · 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 8KCAB
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 8
- 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
- N55008
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Spirit of St Louis Airport (SUS), Chesterfield, MOTo Rolla Downtown Airport (K07), Rolla, 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 · 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure, partial
- Ignition system, magneto › Failure, total
- Lubricating system › Blocked(partial)
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Go-around, attempted
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES DURING AN ATTEMPTED GO-AROUND FROM A PRECAUTIONARY/FORCED LANDING. THERE WERE NO RADIO CALLS FROM THE PILOT BUT EVIDENCE DISCOVERED IN THE ENGINE TEAR DOWN REVEALED INTERNAL PROBLEMS. THE MAGNETO HAD BROKEN AND THE OIL PAN CONTAINED A LARGE AMOUNT OF METALLIC PARTICLES. THE MAIN OIL SCREEN CONTAINED A LARGE AMOUNT OF METALLICPARTICLES. THE ENGINE WAS STILL OPERABLE BUT THE ROD BEARINGS WERE LACKING LUBRICATION AND THE GENERAL CONDITION OF THE ENGINE WAS NOT GOOD. IN ATTEMPTING THE LANDING THE PLT OVERSHOT THE FIELD TOUCHING DOWN ABOUT 150 FT FROM LARGE TREES INFRONT OF HIM. THE GROUND ROLL WAS SHORT, ABOUT 45 FT, AND ABOUT 105 FT LATER THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A LARGE TREE ABOUT 7FT AGL. THE TOXICOLOGY REPORT ON THE PLT ALCOHOL IN THE LIVER TISSUE FLUID OF 0.147%.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC84FA005
- Event ID
- 20001214X44921
- Case number
- MKC84FA005
- 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: af747c09c6f1dee688e3a7b51322481fcd63172a860cba7e9cea85ca2794955e; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:02:18.317Z.