DCA83AA005 · Cessna 551
Coin Acceptors Cessna 551 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Mountain View, MO to St. Louis, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA83AA005
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 551
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 551
- 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
- N2CA
- Operator
- Coin Acceptors
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mountain View, MOTo 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
- Takeoff
- 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 control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight/navigation instrument(s), improper use of
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mountain View, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT CALLED FROM HOME AT 0909 FOR AN IFR CLEARANCE WHICH BECAME VALID UNTIL 0930. HE SAID HE NEEDED 15 MIN TO GET TO THE ARPT. THE CALL ENDED AT 0914. THE CHIEF PLT PREFLIGHTED THE ACFT WHILE THE PLT WAS ENROUTE TO THE ARPT. THE PLT ARRIVED BETWEEN 0920 & 0925. AFTER ENPLANING & LOADING, HE MADE AN IMMEDIATE START & TAXIED A SHORT DISTANCE TO THE RWY.THE CHIEF PLT NOTED THAT APRX 2 MIN HAD ELAPSED FROM THE ENG START UNTIL THE TAKEOFF ROLL WAS STARTED. UP TO 3 MIN WAS NEEDED FOR THE GYRO TO BE UP TO SPEED AFTER THE GENERATOR HAD BEEN SELECTED. WITNESSES STATED THAT THE CEILING WAS BETWEEN 20-100 FT & THE VISIBILITY WAS REDUCED BY FOG. THE ACFT TOOK OFF AT 0930. AT 0934 NOTIFICATION WAS RECEIVED THAT THE ACFT HAD CRASHED. IT IMPACTED 1.75 MI NORTH OF THE ARPT IN ABOUT A 30 DEG NOSE DOWN, 90 DEG LEFT BANK ATTITUDE.NO PREIMPACT FAILURES WERE FOUND. THE CHIEF PLT STATED THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES ON THE PREVIOUS FLT, BUT HENOTED THAT SOME AVIONICS HAD BEEN SLOW TO WARM UP. ALSO THAT THE PLT HAD PREVIOUSLY USED THE COPLT'S HSI DURING TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA83AA005
- Event ID
- 20020917X04492
- Case number
- DCA83AA005
- 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: 5ea263f8a9a9aa2600f872d84b139dbcf126eadf415051724ab696de87eebb4e; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:31:12.782Z.