MIA95FA141 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF) to Moruya Airport (MYA)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA141
- 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
- 2 · 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-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N5832Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF), Miami, FLTo Moruya Airport (MYA), CONGO TOWN
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination; Stall
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination, water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN PARKED AT LEAST 16 DAYS WITH THE INBOARD FUEL TANKS ABOUT 1/3 FULL BEFORE BEING FILLED THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT. AFTER DEPARTING, THE FLIGHT RETURNED REPORTING THAT THE FLAPS WERE NOT OPERATIONAL AND THE LANDING GEAR WOULD NOT RETRACT. A MECHANIC WHO HAD RECENTLY WORKED ON THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM OPERATIONALLY CHECKED THE FLAPS MORE THAN 10 TIMES WITH NO DISCREPENCIES NOTED. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT PLACED ON JACKS FOR AN OPERATIONAL TEST OF THE LANDING GEAR. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED, AND DURING INITIAL CLIMB THE PILOT ADVISED THE ATC CONTROLLER OF A ROUGH RUNNING ENGINE. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO BANK LEFT, PITCH NOSE DOWN, AND IMPACT THE GROUND. WATER WAS DETECTED AT THE FUEL INJECTOR NOZZLES AND FUEL MANIFOLD ASSEMBLY OF SEVERAL CYLINDERS OF THE LEFT ENGINE. NO EVIDENCE OF WATER CONTAMINATION WAS FOUND BY OPERATORS OF OTHER AIRPLANES FUELED FROM THE SAME SOURCE. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE LEFT PROPELLER WAS NOT FEATHERED, THE FLAPS WERE PARTIALLY EXTENDED AND THE LANDING GEAR WAS FULLY EXTENDED.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO WATER CONTAMINATION OF THE FUEL, THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT, AND HIS INTENTIONAL OPERATION OF THE AIRPLANE WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES IN EQUIPMENT WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AT AN ALTITUDE INADEQUATE FOR RECOVERY. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRPLANE AND HIS SELF-INDUCED PRESSURE TO ACCOMPLISH THE FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA141
- Event ID
- 20001207X03764
- Case number
- MIA95FA141
- 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: 7ef1a722b49d9c9ce8f3f507cb76c65227c99279470ad31fd33a8699a09a6f6d; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:45:13.449Z.