Four Star Aviation McDonnell Douglas DC-3C accident
McDonnell Douglas DC-3C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From JBQ · Aguadilla, PR to Mercedita International Airport (PSE)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91FA140
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-3C
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-3
- 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
- N134FS
- Operator
- Four Star Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From JBQ · Aguadilla, PRTo Mercedita International Airport (PSE), Ponce, PR
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Powerplant controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Aguadilla, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER ON THE LEFT ENGINE ON TAKEOFF CLIMB DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE NO. 8 ENGINE ASSEMBLY CYLINDER. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED BY WITNESSES AT 400 FEET AGL IN A 20 DEGREE LEFT BANK WHILE MANEUVERING TO RETURN TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. THE ANGLE OF BANK INCREASED TO 60 DEGREES WITH A NOTICEABLE DECREASE IN AIRSPEED WHILE THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED BELOW 300 FEET AGL. THE LEFT WING DROPPED 90 DEGREES TO THE LEFT AND THE NOSE PITCHED DOWN VERTICALLY. THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO REGAIN ELEVATOR AUTHORITY AND LEVELED OUT BEFORE ENCOUNTERING A SECONDARY STALL. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN AND WAS DESTROYED BY POSTCRASH FIRE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED (VS) AFTER A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER ON THE LEFT ENGINE DUE TO FAILURE OF THE NO. 8 ENGINE ASSEMBLY CYLINDER. THIS RESULTED IN AN IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL (STALL), AND IN FLIGHT COLLISION WITH TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91FA140
- Event ID
- 20001212X17063
- Case number
- MIA91FA140
- 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: 3b463ea50ba57f33c93eeb2d0169967411f3d5d85aa7bb3115abd32f2ae155c8; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:03:29.322Z.