MIA95LA185 · Cessna A188B
Cessna A188B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while standing
From M40 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95LA185
- 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
Cessna A188B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 188
- 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
- N731NP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M40To 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Company/operator management › Procedure inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft unattended/engine(s) running, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STARTED THE ENGINE AND TAXIED THE AIRCRAFT TO THE CHEMICAL LOADING AREA TO PREPARE FOR FLIGHT. HE LEFT THE ENGINE RUNNING AND EXITED THE AIRCRAFT TO FILL THE AIRCRAFT'S CHEMICAL TANK. WHILE PREPARING TO FILL THE CHEMICAL TANK HE HEARD THE AIRCRAFT'S ENGINE INCREASE IN RPM. THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO MOVE WITHOUT ANYONE AT THE CONTROLS. BEFORE HE COULD CATCH THE AIRCRAFT IT COLLIDED WITH A DITCH AND CAME TO REST. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION SHOWED THE THROTTLE CABLE HAD BROKEN. ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR THE THROTTLE ARM ON THE CARBURETOR IS SPRING LOADED TO THE FULL THROTTLE POSITION.
Probable cause
THE OPERATOR'S AND PILOT'S PROCEDURE OF LEAVING THE AIRCRAFT UNATTENDED WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING WHILE LOADING AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS INTO THE AIRCRAFT. THIS RESULTED IN THE AIRCRAFT MOVING UNATTENDED AND COLLIDING WITH A DITCH. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSPECTION OF THE THROTTLE CABLE RESULTING IN FAILURE OF THE WORN CABLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95LA185
- Event ID
- 20001207X04032
- Case number
- MIA95LA185
- 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: b38092db6294bad1895965cd13e6cc7ac55815e48b2fddf80da9d08eacac7310; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:35:43.833Z.