MIA00LA049 · Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to Walkers Cay Airport (MYAW)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00LA049
- 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-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N21312
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), FT.LAUDERDALE, FLTo Walkers Cay Airport (MYAW), WALKERS CAY
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
At about 150 feet agl, during takeoff climb, the flight experienced a partial engine power loss due to an intermittently operative right-hand magneto condenser. The pilot stated the airplane stalled and collided with trees, eventually coming to rest partially submerged in a marina basin. Disassembly examination of the core engine and all fuel components revealed no mechanical abnormalities. Bench testing and disassembly examination of the right-hand magneto condenser revealed no damage attributable to the submersion and a short to ground that would have rendered the magneto inoperative. Using the pilot's estimate of fuel aboard, the occupant's weights, and the FAA's estimate of the baggage and cargo aboard, computations revealed the aircraft was about 272 pounds over maximum gross takeoff weight. The pilot was not BFR current, nor was the conversion to a three-bladed propeller properly documented in the maintenance records.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain minimum flying airspeed, (Vso) during takeoff following a partial loss of engine power resulting in the aircraft stalling, an uncontrolled descent, and collision with trees. A factor in the accident was the failure of the right-hand magneto condenser and the pilot's operation of the aircraft in excess of its maximum gross takeoff weight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00LA049
- Event ID
- 20001212X20290
- Case number
- MIA00LA049
- 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: cbc56360c27f945931d0e35a9eb76dcdff28de38d8e9322d87b845562d9dec6a; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:20:07.782Z.