FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

MIA94LA149 · Beech 65

23 May 1994 · Pensacola, FL, United States

Perkins Smith Beech 65 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while taxiing

Report a problem

Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
MIA94LA149
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
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

Beech 65

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 65
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
N6166Y
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
Taxi · to runway
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
Airframe, component or system failure
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Minor

Cause areas

  • Landing gear, wheel › Failure
  • Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Improper
  • Unknown › Maintenance, installation, improper

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pensacola, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

AS THE PILOT WAS MAKING A LEFT TURN AFTER STARTING TO TAXI, THE AIRCRAFT'S NOSEWHEEL ASSEMBLY CAME APART (EXPLODED) AND ONE SPLIT RIM STRUCK A GROUND OBSERVER, SEVERING HIS LEG. EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE NUTS ON THE THROUGH-BOLTS FOR THE SPLIT RIM WERE IMPROPER AND THAT THE TIRES MAY HAVE BEEN OVER-INFLATED. THE AIRPLANE RECORDS WERE NOT COMPLETE. THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT ASCERTAIN WHO HAD INSTALLED THE WRONG NUTS OR WHEN THE INSTALLION HAD BEEN PERFORMED.

Probable cause

IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF NUTS ON THE NOSEWHEEL (SPLIT RIM) THROUGH-BOLTS BY UNKNOWN PERSONNEL, WHICH RESULTED IN A SUBSEQUENT FAILURE (SEPARATION OF THE WHEEL HALVES).

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA94LA149
Event ID
20001206X01353
Case number
MIA94LA149
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: d42167651f1b2b20b9ae07eb77721268a48621b6ee21a2d998df2c4d5e96c13a; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:54:54.825Z.