MIA94LA047 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Lakeview Airport (30F) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA94LA047
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N5192W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakeview Airport (30F), LAKEVIEW, TXTo 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system 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 › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Vicksburg, MS, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT PILOT SEATED IN THE LEFT FORWARD SEAT BROUGHT TO THE PILOT'S ATTENTION ABOUT 15-20 MINUTES BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, THAT THE LOW VOLTAGE LIGHT FOR THE LORAN UNIT WAS ILLUMINATED. THE PILOT RECYCLED THE ALTERNATOR SWITCH AND THE ROTATING BEACON AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT WAS OBSERVED. THE FLIGHT ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN FOR LANDING AND WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH WHEN THE PILOT TURNED ON THE LANDING LIGHT, THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM FAILED. THE AIRPLANE THEN COLLIDED WITH TREES BUT WAS ABLE TO LAND. DURING A FERRY FLIGHT AFTER THIS ACCIDENT, THE AMMETER FOR THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM SHOWED ERRATIC CHARGING AND DISCHARGING. EXAMINATION OF THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REVEALED THAT THE FIELD WIRE WAS BROKEN AT THE TERMINAL END. THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM DID HAVE PREVIOUS DISCREPANCIES BUT THE REASON FOR THE MALFUNCTION COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. THE THRESHOLD IS DISPLACED 200 FEET DUE TO TREES AND THE USABLE LENGTH OF RUNWAY IS SHORTENED FROM 5,000 TO 4,500 FEET AT NIGHT. A VASI IS NOT INSTALLED FOR THE RUNWAY USED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT DID NOT MAINTAIN THE PROPER GLIDEPATH. FAILURE OF THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM AND INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WERE FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA94LA047
- Event ID
- 20001211X13899
- Case number
- MIA94LA047
- 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: 193e5c5156545d3a132d175ca696d7d18334d94a3f4bdde6a234fbf128fbbe06; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:24:34.637Z.