MIA99LA016 · Piper PA-34
Piper PA-34 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99LA016
- 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-34
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N45SA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Daytona Beach, FLTo not recorded
- 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 · VFR go-around
- 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(cfi) › Throttle/power control, excessive
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ormond Beach, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The instructor simulated the failure of the left engine by reducing the manifold pressure to 11 inches Hg., while on the downwind leg. She stated they did not clear the engine during the visual approach and that the engine had been running rich. On short final approach, the instructor took control of the aircraft and applied full power to both engines for a go-around. The left engine did not accelerate and the aircraft rolled rapidly to the left. The instructor reduced engine power and the aircraft rolled to a level attitude and touched down in a side slip on the runway, collapsing the landing gear. Postcrash examination of the left engine showed the spark plugs were fouled with combustion deposits and the fuel control was operating at a rich mixture in the idle range due to sand contamination.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain Vmc speed, which resulted in a loss of control, and his improper operation of the throttle given the known full rich operating condition of the left engine. A sand-contaminated fuel control was a contributing factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99LA016
- Event ID
- 20001211X11312
- Case number
- MIA99LA016
- 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: 6c1e8573737229c8a3b803f04b9b89eda756357b0471b153bf2151ef37804e81; retrieved 2026-09-22T16:25:15.001Z.