CEN17LA110 · Aerostar Acft Corp OF Texas M20E
Aerostar Acft Corp OF Texas M20E · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Gimlin Airport (18MO) to Gimlin Airport (18MO)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA110
- 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
Aerostar Acft Corp OF Texas M20E
- Aircraft type
- Aerostar Acft Corp Of Texas M20
- 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
- N6807V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gimlin Airport (18MO), Ozark, MOTo Gimlin Airport (18MO), Ozark, MO
- Aircraft age
- About 46 years (built 1971)
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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 (total)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor reported that, after takeoff on the instructional flight, the engine was running smoothly before it "missed" or "hesitated." The flight instructor initiated a return to the airport; shortly thereafter, the engine began to make loud noises and vibrate, ultimately experiencing a total loss of power. The flight instructor performed a forced landing to a field, resulting in substantial damage.
Examination of the engine revealed that the No. 2 connecting rod had failed. Remnants of the connecting rod bearing found within the oil pan exhibited evidence of bearing failure and extrusion. Due to the extensive secondary engine damage, the reason for the failure of the No. 2 bearing could not be determined. The engine was overhauled 11 years 6 months before the accident, and had accumulated about 16 hours of flight time in the preceding 3 years. Guidance published by the engine manufacturer stated that abnormal wear could occur during engine start due to a loss of protective oil film after an extended period of inactivity and recommended that all engines not in continuous service be overhauled every 12 years.
Probable cause
The failure of the engine No. 2 connecting rod bearing for reasons that could not be determined due to the extensive secondary engine damage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA110
- Event ID
- 20170223X92731
- Case number
- CEN17LA110
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: ec9d49f2b52b1f8f3be1f6a9008c5be0b224f833ba23aeb89e149ea5743f08f2; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:02:12.877Z.