CHI02LA179 · Waltz RV-8
Waltz RV-8 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Creve Coeur Airport (1H0) to Millard Airport (MLE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA179
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Waltz RV-8
- Aircraft type
- Waltz RV-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
- N877TC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Creve Coeur Airport (1H0), St. Louis, MOTo Millard Airport (MLE), Omaha, NE
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod bolt › Loose
- Engine assembly, connecting rod cap › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft sustained substantial damage during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. The pilot reported the airplane experienced a propeller overspeed condition followed by a fluctuation in oil pressure. The pilot stated the engine started "banging" and lost power a few minutes later. The pilot performed a forced landing to a bean field, during which the main landing gear collapsed. Inspection of the engine revealed the number four engine cylinder connecting rod cap and cap bolts had fractured. A metallurgical examination revealed that the nut of one of the connecting rod cap bolts was partially engaged. The connecting rod cap showed evidence of fatigue cracking along the fracture surface. Fracture features of both connecting rod cap bolts indicated the bolts had separated due to overload.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to a loose connecting rod cap bolt and the resulting fatigue failure of the connecting rod cap. A related factor was the unsuitable terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA179
- Event ID
- 20020703X01044
- Case number
- CHI02LA179
- 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, coordinates. 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: 53dd4b4180be246783db7ae3e1b87042568d25af78047f10928d72fa76ee9cdf; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:47:04.555Z.