MIA95FA115 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Quincy Municipal Airport (2J9) to LHC · Arlington, TN
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA115
- 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
- 5 · 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-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N3995R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Quincy Municipal Airport (2J9)To LHC · Arlington, TN
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Engine compartment › Fire
- Fuel system › Leak
- Fuel system › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS HEARD TO PERFORM AN ENGINE RUN-UP BEFORE DEPARTURE. THE FLIGHT THEN DEPARTED WITH FULL FUEL TANKS AND ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, CLIMBED TO ABOUT 200-300 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. A WITNESS NEAR THE CRASH SITE OBSERVED BLACK SMOKE TRAILING THE ENGINE AREA, AND ANOTHER WITNESS HEARD THE ENGINE 'BACKFIRING AND SPUTTERING.' THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES THEN THE GROUND WHILE DESCENDING, AND A POST CRASH FIRE OCCURRED. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT REVEALED SEVERE (FIRE) DAMAGE TO THE FIREWALL ADJACENT TO THE 2 ELECTRIC FUEL PUMPS AND GASCOLATOR, BUT NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT (INTERNAL) ENGINE FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE EXAMINATION ALSO REVEALED THAT THE #1 CYLINDER BAFFLE TUBE HAD FAILED CIRCUMFERENTIALLY ALONG A WELD AT THE END PLATE OF THE MUFFLER WITH EVIDENCE OF STRESS CORROSION CRACKING. ALSO, CARBON MONOXIDE WAS DETECTED IN THE PILOT AND TWO OF THE PASSENGERS; ALTHOUGH, NO EVIDENCE OF SOOT DEPOSITION OR BURNING OF THE LARYNX WAS NOTED IN ANY OF THE FIVE OCCUPANTS.
Probable cause
AN UNDETERMINED FUEL SYSTEM PROBLEM THAT RESULTED IN A FUEL LEAK, AN ENGINE COMPARTMENT FIRE, AND A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. A FACTOR RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR A FORCED LANDING. AN EXHAUST LEAK FROM THE FRACTURE OF AN IMPROPERLY WELDED BAFFLE TUBE MAY HAVE BEEN THE SOURCE OF IGNITION FOR THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT FIRE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA115
- Event ID
- 20001207X03337
- Case number
- MIA95FA115
- 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: a6b34573baa8e09db9f45aaf6e2c7c18754ca3257af54a131c7f7369eaf8c5d9; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:48:33.806Z.