MIA96LA003 · Piper PA-23
Piper PA-23 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From X05 to X41 · Tampa, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA003
- 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
- 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
- N183JD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From X05To X41 · Tampa, FL
- 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)
- 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 › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED HIS TAKEOFF ROLL WAS VERY SHORT. RIGHT AFTER LIFT OFF, THE POWER ON THE LEFT ENGINE SURGED. HE THOUGHT HE HAD AN ENGINE FAILURE, AND APPLIED FULL RIGHT RUDDER, WHEN THE POWER ON THE LEFT ENGINE INCREASED. A WITNESS SAW THE AIRPLANE BECOME AIRBORNE ABOUT 500 FEET AFTER STARTING THE TAKEOFF ROLL. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO ASSUME A HIGH ANGLE OF ATTACK, AND STARTED A LEFT TURN WITH ABOUT A 30-DEGREE BANK ANGLE. THE PITCH ATTITUDE INCREASED AND THE AIRPLANE ROLLED TO THE LEFT COLLIDING WITH THE GROUND AND A HANGAR. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME, FLIGHT CONTROLS, ENGINE ASSEMBLIES AND ACCESSORIES REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PRECRASH FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. DISASSEMBLY OF THE LEFT ENGINE GASCOLATOR REVEALED THE GASCOLATOR BOWL HAD CONTAMINATION IN THE FORM OF DIRT, DEBRIS, AND WATER. DISASSEMBLY OF THE LEFT ENGINE CARBURETOR REVEALED THE BOWL ASSEMBLY WAS DRY, AND RESIDUE IN THE FORM OF DIRT AND DEBRIS REDDISH IN COLOR WAS PRESENT ALONG THE SIDEWALLS OF THE BOWL ASSEMBLY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED (VMC) ON INITIAL TAKEOFF CLIMB RESULTING IN AN IN-FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL, AND SUBSEQUENT IN-FLIGHT COLLISION WITH THE GROUND AND A BUILDING. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER ON THE LEFT ENGINE DUE TO FUEL CONTAMINATION OF THE GASCOLATOR AND CARBURETOR BOWL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA003
- Event ID
- 20001207X04751
- Case number
- MIA96LA003
- 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: 8c73cbafb9c8cb39e435151dd84382127a83f0d4ac6efba48dfa0a8461d39b53; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:03:06.807Z.