MIA94FA069 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Tupelo Regional Airport (TUP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA94FA069
- 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
- 1 · 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
Piper PA-32R-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N1645H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tupelo Regional Airport (TUP), Tupelo, MSTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON A STRAIGHT IN APPROACH TO A RUNWAY DURING A DARK NIGHT WITH NO VISUAL APPROACH SLOPE INDICATOR AVAILABLE, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES ABOUT 2378 FEET SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED AND IMPACTED THE GROUND COMING TO REST UPRIGHT. EXAMINATION OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS AND ENGINE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE ASSEMBLY REVEALED THAT THE ALTERNATOR WAS PHYSICALLY INSTALLED ON THE ENGINE BUT THE ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS WERE NOT SECURED. THE PILOT DEPARTED ON THE RETURN FLIGHT WITHOUT THE ALTERNATOR BEING PROPERLY INSTALLED. EXAMINATION OF THE LANDING LIGHT BULB REVEALED THAT THE FILAMENT WAS NOT STRETCHED BUT BROKEN. THE LANDING LIGHT SWITCH WAS IN THE 'ON' POSITION. ACCORDING TO FIRE/RESCUE PERSONNEL, THE BATTERY, ALTERNATOR, FUEL PUMP, AND ANTICOLLISION SWITCHES WERE IN THE 'ON' POSITION IN THE COCKPIT BEFORE BEING TURNED 'OFF.'
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND TO MAINTAIN THE PROPER GLIDEPATH WHILE ON A STRAIGHT IN APPROACH RESULTING IN THE INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH TREES SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE DARK NIGHT CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA94FA069
- Event ID
- 20001206X00793
- Case number
- MIA94FA069
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-02-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f81b7dbbb74e06ced52e2fe4a7b4573229f12ef447511267343162b5ccd0cdc5; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:15:07.501Z.