MIA90FA071 · Piper PA-28-161
Pro Flite of Vero Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) to Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA071
- 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-28-161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8432P
- Operator
- Pro Flite of Vero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV), Savannah, GATo Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB), Vero Beach, FL
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Total 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, carburetor › Failure, total
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Roseland, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE DESCENDING THROUGH 5,500 FROM 8,500 FT, PLT REPORTED THAT THE ENG LOST POWER. HE LEVELED OFF AT THE ALT & ATTEMPTED TO CORRECT THIS BUT WAS UNABLE. HE ELECTED TO CONTINUE TOWARD THE DEST BUT AFTER BEING ADVISED BY MIAMI CENTER THAT THE FLT WOULD NOT MAKE IT, ELECTED TO DIVERT TO AN ALTERNATE ARPT THAT WAS CLOSER. THE FLT WAS UNABLE TO LAND THERE. PLT ELECTED TO LAND ON A RD SHORT OF THE ARPT & DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES, A FENCE & CAME TO REST WITH THE RT WING SEPARATED. AN ALTERNATE FUEL SUPPLY WAS CONNECTED FOR THE ENG RUN. AFTER IT STARTED IT WOULD ONLY RUN IF THE THROTTLE WERE PUMPED. WHILE IT WAS RUNNING, A MECHANIC TAPPED THE CARBURETOR BOWL AREA. THE ENG THEN OPERATED NORMALLY. CARBURETOR WAS REMOVED FOR FURTHER EXAM. EXAM OF IT REVEALED THE MOLDED CELLULAR FLOAT ABSORBED FUEL WHICH ALLOWED EXCESS FUEL INTO THE CARBURETOR BOWL. THE NEEDLE VALVE WAS EXAM. NO DETERMINATION COULD BE MADE AS TO WHY IT STUCK IN THE CLOSED POSITION AS INDICATED DURING THE ENG RUN.
Probable cause
THE ENGINE FAILURE DUE TO FUEL STARVATION CAUSED BY A NEEDLE VALVE IN THE CARBURETOR WHICH ALLOWS FUEL TO ENTER THE CARBURETOR BOWL, STUCK IN THE CLOSED POSITION FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS RESULTING IN THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA071
- Event ID
- 20001212X22605
- Case number
- MIA90FA071
- 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: 036ea32e42ae8c21afa4f9ee1711399c70910256361f56bf3b1f8ea3de347bca; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:47:19.979Z.