MIA95LA148 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 61X to Treasure Cay Airport (MYAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95LA148
- 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
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
- N949BW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 61XTo Treasure Cay Airport (MYAT), Treasure Cay
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated he drained the fuel sumps during the preflight inspection on the airplane and no water was found. The airplane became airborne on the takeoff roll just under 70 knots, and remained in ground effect at about 3 to 5 feet while accelerating to almost 80 knots. The left engine experienced a reduction in power, and the airplane began to settle but did not touch the runway. The left engine increased in power, decreased in power, and the airplane drifted to the left. The pilot maneuvered the airplane over a fence, ditch, and trees before landing in a field. The main landing gear collapsed, and the airplane collided with trees. Examination of the airplane by the FAA revealed no evidence of a mechanical failure of either engine. Water was present in the left engine gascolator sump bowl, internal baffle assembly, and congealed contaminants were present on the fuel screen. The No. 2, 3, and 6 cylinder sparkplugs and piston domes appeared white in color.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper draining of the fuel sumps during preflight inspection of the airplane. This resulted in a partial loss of engine power on the left engine on initial take off climb due to water contamination, subsequent forced landing, collapse of the main landing gear, and on-ground collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95LA148
- Event ID
- 20001207X03772
- Case number
- MIA95LA148
- 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: 022a7a1fe60fc54b19139ef646f3584709ca2a71a666477e5eaafe3496023a5f; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:51:24.380Z.