MIA98LA192 · Cessna 310K
Cessna 310K · Accident: explosion during initial climb
From Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF) to X16 · Tampa, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA98LA192
- 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 310K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N366J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF)To X16 · 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
- Explosion
- 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
- Fuel system, line › Leak
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Owner/builder › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During takeoff an explosion inside the left wing resulted in a short duration fire. The flight continued and landed uneventfully. The upper and lower wing skins were displaced and fire damage was noted aft of the battery box. The positive battery cable was chafing against an open adel clamp located near the battery box; the PK screw was not in place. Arching was noted on the battery cable. Testing of the left auxiliary fuel tank revealed seepage from the fuel tank vent line. The fuel tank was not properly secured inside the wing. Damage to the external portion of the auxiliary fuel tank near the vent line was noted. Previous fuel seepage from the left wing auxiliary fuel tank was evident in the form of damage on the ground beneath the left wing area greater than damage to the ground beneath the right wing area. Also, a wax type residue was found on the lower wing skin in the area of the fuel seepage. The service manual indicates to check electrical cables for condition every 100 hours.
Probable cause
The fuel leak due to improper installation of the left auxiliary fuel tank by maintenance personnel. Also, inadequate annual inspection of the airplane by maintenance personnel for failure to identify the missing screw from the adel clamp resulting in chafing of the positive battery cable. Also, operation of the airplane by the owner with known deficiencies in equipment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA98LA192
- Event ID
- 20001211X10390
- Case number
- MIA98LA192
- 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: 0d32348f3e68c513340cb3004a41d921ae37d71c7bbb4a538171f81396f77462; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:42:34.887Z.