MIA90FA090 · Butler AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6
Butler AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (CRG) to Atlanta, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA090
- 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
- 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
Butler AEROSTAR 601 AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Butler AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N7443S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (CRG), Jacksonville, FLTo Atlanta, GA
- 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
- En route · 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
- 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; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Exhaust system, gasket › Not installed
- Exhaust system, turbocharger › Leak
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Ignition system, magneto grounding lead (p-lead) › Shorted
- Pilot in command › Flight manuals, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER LEVELING OFF AT 14,000 FT THE LEFT ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT DIVERTED TO TAMPA, AND 34 MINUTES LATER THE RIGHT ENGINE QUIT. DURING THE SUBSEQUENT FORCED LANDING THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE ROOF OF A COVERED SIDEWALK AND THEN TREES. TEARDOWN OF THE LEFT ENG REVEALED THAT THE SEAL BETWEEN THE EXHAUST FLANGE & TURBOCHARGER WAS NOT INSTALLED; BOLT CLAMP WAS FINGER TIGHT. HEAT HAD MELTED WIRING HARNESS & MAG GROUNDING LEADS INSULATION; BOTH 'P' LEADS WERE GROUNDED. PILOT STATED THAT AFTER LOSING THE LEFT ENG HE INITIATED A LEFT TANK TO RIGHT ENGINE CROSSFEED, AND AFTER 20 MINUTES OF SINGLE ENG FLIGHT IN THIS CONFIGURATION THE RIGHT ENG QUIT. FLIGHT MANUAL STATES TO LAND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN CASE OF ONE ENG FAILURE. IN ADDITION, IT WARNS THAT WHEN FLYING ON ONE ENG & CROSSFEEDING FUEL, ABSOLUTE COORDINATED FLIGHT MUST BE MAINTAINED TO PREVENT UNPORTING OF THE TANK'S FUEL PICKUP TUBE WHEN THE TANK IS NOT FULL.
Probable cause
INFLIGHT FAILURE OF THE LEFT ENGINE WHICH WAS CAUSED BY INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL RESULTING IN HEAT DAMAGED MAGNETO LEADS AS A RESULT OF A MISSING EXHAUST FLANGE-TO-TURBOCHARGER SEAL. IN ADDITION, THE INFLIGHT POWER LOSS OF THE RIGHT ENGINE WAS CAUSED BY THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES IN THE AIRPLANE OPERATING HANDBOOK AND LAND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE RESULTING IN FUEL STARVATION OF THE RIGHT ENGINE. DARKNESS WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA090
- Event ID
- 20001212X22758
- Case number
- MIA90FA090
- 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 1990-03-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1c6bc67ed8da8c57534a0bd46a4d6820e7fb22373e145fb6ac51ae92a5c7c058; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:03:48.953Z.