MIA92FA174 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Leland, MS to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92FA174
- 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
- 2 · 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 J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N70734
- Operator
- Arrington, Lee · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Leland, MSTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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/spin
- 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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT WHO HAD NOT RECEIVED A SOLO ENDORSEMENT FROM A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR BORROWED THE AIRCRAFT FROM THE OWNER. THE STUDENT THEN FLEW SOLO TO CLEVELAND, MISSISSIPPI WHERE A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR ENDORSED HIM FOR SOLO FLIGHT. THE STUDENT THEN RETURNED TO INVERNESS, MISSISSIPPI AND REFUELED THE AIRCRAFT. THE STUDENT THEN FLEW TO LELAND, MISSISSIPPI AND PICKED UP A PASSENGER. THE STUDENT AND PASSENGER THEN DEPARTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEER SPOTTING. THE FLIGHT WAS OBSERVED FLYING LOW AND AT A SLOW SPEED IN THE CRASH AREA. THE AIRCRAFT WRECKAGE WAS FOUND THE NEXT DAY. THE AIRCRAFT HAD CRASHED NOSE FIRST AT A SLOW SPEED IN AN AREA OF TREES. ONLY ONE SMALL BRANCH ON A TREE HAD BEEN DAMAGED BY THE DESCENDING AIRCRAFT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PRECRASH FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT STRUCTURE, FLIGHT CONTROLS, OR ENGINE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT IN COMMAND TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED ABOVE STALL AIRSPEED RESULTING IN THE AIRCRAFT STALLING AND ENTERING A SPIN FROM WHICH IT DESCENDED UNCONTROLLED TO THE GROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92FA174
- Event ID
- 20001211X15744
- Case number
- MIA92FA174
- 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: f46daec32289b14d4669959b09ffc82440a51ecfb26c06581afd3d21cf8a706a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:57:42.149Z.