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MIA91FA172 · Cessna 411

27 Jun 1991 · NORTH FT. MYERS, FL, United States

Cessna 411 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
MIA91FA172
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

Cessna 411

Aircraft type
Cessna 411
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
N4940T
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
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 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, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
  • Pilot in command › Propeller feathering, not performed
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

PILOT STATED LEFT ENGINE LOST POWER FOLLOWED BY THE RIGHT ENGINE. HE INITIATED A LEFT TURN BACK TO THE AIRPORT BUT DID NOT SHUTDOWN ENGINES IN ACCORDANCE WITH EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. THE ACFT YAWED LEFT AND FELL OFF ON THE LEFT WING AS IF IT HAD STALLED. HE REGAINED PARTIAL CONTROL AND AIMED FOR A STREET. ACFT HIT ROOF OF HOUSE WHILE IN RIGHT BANK AND THEN CARTWHEELED ACROSS THE STREET. LEFT ENGINE WAS FOUND TO HAVE SEVERE DETONATION DAMAGE AND THE TURBOCHARGER WASTE GATE DOOR WAS MISSING ANTIVIBRATION SPRING. THE PIN CONNECTING THE DOOR AND ACTUATOR WAS FAILED. EVIDENCE INDICATED PIN HAD FAILED PRIOR TO ACCIDENT FLIGHT. SOOT INSIDE LEFT WASTEGATE INDICATED DOOR HAD BEEN FULLY CLOSED FOR SOMETIME. NO EVIDENCE TO INDICATE FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE RIGHT ENGINE WAS FOUND AND RIGHT PROPELLER SHOWED DAMAGE INDICATIVE OF ROTATION UNDER POWER AT GROUND IMPACT.

Probable cause

THE PILOT IN COMMANDS FAILURE TO FOLLOW EMERGENCY PROCEDURES AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED FOLLOWING LOSS OF POWER IN ONE ENGINE RESULTING IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AND THE INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL WITH SUBSEQUENT INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH AN OBJECT AND THE TERRAIN DURING AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA91FA172
Event ID
20001212X17336
Case number
MIA91FA172
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-06-28.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: cf0d6083603ea190ac91ff9065b698212cff1e9383f857241381aba5e148cf73; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:24:56.365Z.