MIA97LA156 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From 55J · Fernandina Beach, FL to 8A6
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97LA156
- 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-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N3976R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From 55J · Fernandina Beach, FLTo 8A6
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had contacted Charlotte Approach Control, and requested assistance. The airplane was radar identified, and given the location of the airport. Radar and radio contact was lost, and a short time later, approach control was notified by the police that the airplane had crashed. The airplane impacted in a residential area. There was no damage to property or any injuries to any persons on the ground. According to the passengers they were flying back from Florida when '...motor cut off minutes from runway, started back up again ran for about 20 seconds, shut down again...would not start again.' Examination of the wreckage revealed that the fuel system was not breached, the fuel pump switch was in the 'ON' position, and the fuel selector was selected to the left tank. No fuel was found in the tanks, or the fuel lines, and there was no evidence of fuel spillage in the crash area. There was about '1 ounce' of fuel that was drained from the fuel sediment bowl. The fuel from the bowl was clean and 'free of foreign matter.' The last known fuel input was shortly before midnight on May 6, 1997, in Jacksonville, Florida. The engine was examined, and revealed no discrepancies. According to the Piper PA-28-180 manual, this model airplane's fuel consumption was about 13.5 gallon per hour (gph). The airplane held 50 gallons total, of which 48 was usable. The distance flown from the last refueling was about 450 miles, and the duration of the flight was about 4 to 5 hours. The exact time of departure is unknown, but the airplane was refuel around midnight at the last reported refueling stop. Several attempts were made to have the pilot return the NTSB Form 6120.1/2, and it was received on September 4, 1997. According to his statement they landed at Fernandina Beach Airport, Florida, 'to purchase fuel,' May 6, 1997, continued to Ft. Lauderdale, with an approximate arrival around 1800. He returned to the FBO around 2200, and 'fill[ed] the plane with fuel' and before going to Charlotte. They stopped at Jacksonville, and said that he ' fill the airplane again.' The 'best I recall,' when we left Jacksonville, it was approximately 03:00 [0300] to 03:30 A.M [0330]. In addition the pilot said, '...after we were airborne is the end of my memory until about 3 1/2 weeks later....' .
Probable cause
the pilot's improper planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a forced landing short of the intended destination airport.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97LA156
- Event ID
- 20001208X07976
- Case number
- MIA97LA156
- 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: 7e5e26d3081b1e8826e11d523b72d6f6fee1270984d29784950ea402d5ea0d67; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:07:10.023Z.