MIA96LA149 · Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Orlando International Airport (MCO) to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA149
- 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
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Smith Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N441CB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando International Airport (MCO)To Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), Greenville, SC
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During takeoff, the pilot retracted the landing gear, then a 'power loss' occurred at an altitude of about 150 feet AGL, followed by a 'rapid speed loss to Vmc...84 Knots.' The airplane was still over the runway, and the pilot elected to land straight ahead. After evacuating the airplane, he noted that the landing gear was in an intermediate position, and the right tire had blown out. During a postaccident interview, the pilot stated that both engines lost power just after takeoff. He stated that the left engine lost power first with its manifold pressure dropping from 40' hg to 25' hg, then the right engine had a 'partial loss of power.' Both engines were operationally checked, but no discrepancies were found with either engine during the test runs.
Probable cause
loss of power in both engines for undetermined reason(s).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA149
- Event ID
- 20001208X05839
- Case number
- MIA96LA149
- 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: fe7a27479ea2c71b95682a26129ca2918427f4e04b8b18c128786044cb6ddca4; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:27:34.350Z.