MIA97LA250 · Piper PA-28R-200
C.A.P. Flying Club Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Key West International Airport (EYW) to Orlando Executive Airport (ORL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97LA250
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N4315X
- Operator
- Cap Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key West International Airport (EYW), Key West, FLTo Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 (mechanical 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
- Pilot in command › Distance/altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Upon reaching cruising altitude of 8,500 feet the pilot leaned the engine fuel mixture. Several minutes later the fuel mixture began to lean further and the engine lost power. Movement of the mixture control handle had no effect on the engine mixture or engine operation. The flight descended for a forced landing at a near by airport. Upon turning on to final approach the flight did not have sufficient altitude and airspeed to make the runway. The aircraft landed on soft terrain short of the runway and the landing gear collapsed. Post crash examination of the engine showed the mixture control cable hold down bracket had broken near the engine and a clamp holding the cable to the engine mount was missing the rubber insert allowing the clamp to slide freely on the engine mount arm. Manufacturer inspection requirements state the mixture control cable be inspected for security each 100 flight hours.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to properly plan his descent and approach for a forced landing following partial loss of engine power resulting in the aircraft landing short of the intended landing runway. A factor in the accident was improper inspection of the aircraft by company maintenance personnel resulting in a cracked mixture cable hold down bracket going undetected until failure and a missing clamp rubber insert going undetected.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97LA250
- Event ID
- 20001208X08902
- Case number
- MIA97LA250
- 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: 0e764e9a3b760437bec1f54e544f9d0b8d540f2906516ecda26559ba6fabd88d; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:35:43.133Z.