MIA93LA006 · HARKNESS, Richard W. ADVENTURE
HARKNESS, Richard W. ADVENTURE · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93LA006
- 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
- 1 · 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
HARKNESS, Richard W. ADVENTURE
- Aircraft type
- Harkness Richard ADVENTURE
- 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
- N87RH
- Operator
- Deshler, Marshall L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX), Titusville, 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- 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, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of New Smyrna Beach, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT CIRCLE THE AIRPORT AT APPROXIMATELY 2,500 FEET AND PERFORM A DESCENDING TURN TO OVERFLY THE RUNWAY FROM SOUTH TO NORTH. THE AIRCRAFT LEVELED OFF AT 300 FEET OVER THE RUNWAY AT AN APPROXIMATE SPEED OF 160 MPH. AS THE AIRCRAFT PASSED THE NORTH END OF THE RUNWAY THE PILOT BEGAN A MODERATE PITCH UP AND THE ENGINE STOPPED COMPLETELY. THE PILOT CONTINUED THE PITCH UP AND MADE A HARD LEFT TURN. THE AIRCRAFT STALLED, HOWEVER, THE PILOT REGAINED CONTROL. THE AIRCRAFT STALLED SEVERAL MORE TIMES PRIOR TO IMPACTING THE GROUND IN A NEAR VERTICAL ATTITUDE. POSTCRASH EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE NUMBER THREE CYLINDER HAD SEIZED DUE TO OVERHEATING WHICH WAS CAUSED BY EXCESSIVE LEANING. NO MECHANICAL FAILURE WHICH WOULD HAVE CAUSED EXCESSIVE LEANING WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT IN COMMAND TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED ABOVE STALL SPEED FOLLOWING ENGINE FAILURE RESULTING IN THE AIRCRAFT STALLING AND DESCENDING UNCONTROLLED TO THE GROUND. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S IMPROPER LEANING OF THE ENGINE WHICH CAUSED ENGINE OVERHEATING AND ENGINE SEIZURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93LA006
- Event ID
- 20001211X15915
- Case number
- MIA93LA006
- 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: a7e9b6f376dc135c034a3fab1dcdeece9c6583a5a625d53511a67e1dca12b688; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:51:31.661Z.