CHI05FA212 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) to Mackinac Island Airport (MCD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05FA212
- 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
Cessna 421C
- 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
- N421KC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK), Wheeling, ILTo Mackinac Island Airport (MCD), Mackinac Island, MI
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Flight control, flap › Extended
- Landing gear › Extended
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, low
- Pilot in command › Go-around, attempted
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The twin-engine airplane sustained substantial damage when it impacted the top of a single-story industrial building and then impacted a landscape embankment and trees during an attempted single-engine go-around. The pilot reported that the left engine failed during initial climb. He feathered the left propeller and returned to the airport to execute an emergency landing. The pilot reported that he had "excessive speed" on final approach and "overshot the runway." When the airplane was at mid-field, the pilot elected to do a go-around. He did not raise the landing gear and the flaps remained about 15-degrees down. The airplane lost altitude and impacted the terrain about .5 miles from the airport. A witness reported seeing the airplane attempt to land on the runway twice during the same approach, but ballooned both times before executing the go-around. The Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH) "Rate-of-Climb One Engine Inoperative" chart indicated that about a 450-foot rate-of-climb was possible during the single-engine go-around if the airplane was in a clean configuration. The chart also indicated that a 350-foot penalty would be subtracted from the rate-of-climb if the landing gear were in the DOWN position, and additionally, a 200-foot penalty would be subtracted from the rate-of-climb if the flaps were in the 15-degree DOWN position. Inspection of the left engine revealed that the starter adapter shaft gear had failed. Inspection of the engine maintenance logbooks revealed that the Teledyne Continental Motors Service Bulletin CSB94-4, and subsequent revisions including the Mandatory Service Bulletin MSB94-4F, issued on July 5, 2005, had not been complied with since the last engine overhaul on July 17, 1998. The service bulletin required a visual inspection of the starter adapter every 400 hours. The engine logbook indicated that the engine had accumulated about 1,270 hours since the last overhaul. The service bulletin contained a WARNING that stated, "Compliance with this bulletin is required to prevent possible failure of the starter adapter shaft gear and/or crankshaft gear which can result in metal contamination and/or engine failure."
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight decision to execute a go-around without raising the landing gear and raising the flaps to the full UP position, resulting in low airspeed and the airplane stalling. Contributing factors to the accident included the pilot's failure to comply with the manufacturer's mandatory service bulletin and the failure of the starter adapter shaft gear which resulted in the loss of power to the left engine, and the collision with the building.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05FA212
- Event ID
- 20050810X01207
- Case number
- CHI05FA212
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: ea605c105dabf5db8b9bf65475ce81855f3a08399418137fb591023b11343a5d; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:56:14.586Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states "The twin-engine airplane sustained substantial damage when it impacted the top of a single-story industrial building".