MIA93FA082 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Kissimmee Gateway Airport (ISM) to River Ranch Resort Airport (2RR)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93FA082
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N5314S
- Operator
- Joseph V. Fera · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kissimmee Gateway Airport (ISM)To River Ranch Resort Airport (2RR), Lake Wales, 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Elevator trim, improper
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type of aircraft
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, not performed
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED BY WITNESSES TO BE IN AN UNUSUALLY HIGH PITCH ATTITUDE WHICH SOME WITNESSES DESCRIBED AS A STALLED CONDITION. THE PASSENGERS STATED THAT AFTER TAKEOFF THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO SHAKE BUT THAT THE ENGINE NOISE DID NOT CHANGE. THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED IN THE HIGH PITCH ATTITUDE UNTIL GROUND IMPACT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED NO EVIDENCE TO INDICATE PRECRASH FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT STRUCTURE, FLIGHT CONTROLS, OR ENGINE. CALCULATIONS INDICATED THE AIRCRAFT WAS ABOUT 150 OVER MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE GROSS WEIGHT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE CENTER OF GRAVITY WAS 2.8 INCHES FORWARD OF THE FORWARD LIMIT FOR THE WEIGHT CONDITIONS. THE STABILATOR TRIM WAS FOUND AT THE 9-DEGREE TAB-DOWN OR NOSE-UP POSITION. THE AIRCRAFT FLIGHT MANUAL CALLS FOR TRIM NEAR NEUTRAL FOR TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT'S LOGBOOK THE PILOT DID NOT HAVE THE REQUIRED THREE TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS IN THE PAST 90 DAYS REQUIRED BY REGULATIONS TO ACT AS PILOT-IN-COMMAND CARRYING PASSENGERS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S ATTEMPT TO CLIMB AT A HIGH PITCH ATTITUDE AFTER TAKEOFF AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL MUSH CONDITION UNTIL THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED TO THE GROUND. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S ATTEMPT TO TAKE OFF 150 POUNDS OVER MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT WITH A CENTER OF GRAVITY FORWARD OF THE FORWARD CENTER OF GRAVITY LIMIT. ADDITIONALLY, CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO SET STABILIZER TRIM FOR TAKEOFF AND HIS FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THE STALLED CONDITION AND INITIATE STALL RECOVERY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93FA082
- Event ID
- 20001211X12019
- Case number
- MIA93FA082
- 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: 30475afb31e56bcefcfdb1ef573bdb48888f18badbb998e8d3dd4414d013e396; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:32:08.276Z.