MIA90LA089 · Piper PA-30
Piper PA-30 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Gregorio Luperon International Airport (MDPP) to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90LA089
- 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-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- 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
- N7114Y
- Operator
- Bernaby, Frank A. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gregorio Luperon International Airport (MDPP), Puerto PlataTo Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), FT LAUDERDALE, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, poor
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT THE NOSE GEAR STRUT WAS 'SLIGHTLY EXTENDED' WHEN THE FUEL TANKS WERE TOPPED OFF, WHICH WAS VERIFIED BY VISUAL INSPECTION & THE FUEL GAUGES. THE FLT DEPARTED TO A PVT ARPT TO ENPLANE 2 PAX THEN DEPARTED & LANDED AT AN ARPT WHERE THE INTL VFR FLT PLAN WAS FILED. THE FLT DEPARTED & EN ROUTE WAS UNEVENTFUL BUT DURING THE EXTENDED DOWNWIND LEG, BOTH ENG'S QUIT DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. DURING THE LANDING ROLL ON A CANAL, THE RT WING COLLIDED WITH AN OBJECT. THE OWNERS HANDBOOK STATES THAT THE LANDING GEAR STRUTS SHOULD BE EXTENDED 2 3/4 INCHES UNDER STATIC LOAD. EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED THAT LOCATED ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE MAIN FUEL TANK FILLER COVER DOOR WAS A PLACARD WHICH STATES THAT 'FILLING INSTRUCTIONS TO OBTAIN MAXIMUM CAPACITY, ACFT MUST BE APRX LEVEL WITH LANDING GEARS EQUALLY EXTENDED. NONVENTED FUEL CAP TIGHTENED SECURELY.' THE PLT FURTHER STATED THAT HE ESTIMATES THAT THE FUEL CAPACITY WAS 7.7 GALLONS SHORT WHEN THE FUEL TANKS WERE TOPPED OFF.
Probable cause
LOSS OF POWER IN BOTH ENGINES DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION, RESULTING IN A FORCED LANDING. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THAT THE PILOT DID NOT FOLLOW THE FLIGHT MANUAL TO ENSURE THAT THE FUEL TANKS WERE FILLED TO CAPACITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90LA089
- Event ID
- 20001212X22772
- Case number
- MIA90LA089
- 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: 7b0006e038aa64bf8fe8dfb9112bc7b7971c795546c96dbace06a439910d1020; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:41:36.123Z.