MIA90FA106 · Piper PA-38-112
Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
From Naples Municipal Airport (APF) to Naples Municipal Airport (APF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA106
- 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
- 1 · 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N91309
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Naples Municipal Airport (APF), Naples, FLTo Naples Municipal Airport (APF), Naples, 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
- Unknown
- 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; Stall/spin
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Marco Island, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED NAPLES MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, NAPLES, FLORIDA, VFR ON A PERSONAL FLIGHT AT 1130 HOURS. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED CONDUCTING TOUCH AND GO LANDINGS AT THE MARCO ISLAND MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, MARCO ISLAND, FLORIDA BETWEEN 1300-1400 HOURS AND DEPARTED AT AN UNKNOWN TIME. THE AIRPLANE WRECKAGE WAS INITIALLY SPOTTED AT 1700 HOURS IN UNKNOWN BAY, BUT WAS THOUGHT TO BE A SUNKEN BOAT. THE CIVIL AIR PATROL SPOTTED THE AIRPLANE AT 1925 HOURS AND NOTIFIED THE AUTHORITIES, WHO RESPONDED TO THE CRASH SITE. AIRCRAFT RECORDS AND HOBBS METER IN THE AIRPLANE, INDICATE IT HAD BEEN OPERATED 4 HRS & 36 MIN. AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE CHARTS INDICATE FUEL EXHAUSTION AT 4 HRS & 24 MIN. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL AT CRASH SITE OR PURCHASE OF FUEL BY THE PILOT. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE INDICATES INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL. THE AIRPLANE STALLED AND SPUN TO THE LEFT AND IMPACTED THE WATER. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY POWERPLANT, AIRFRAME OR FLIGHT CONTROL FAILURE.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO IMPROPER PLANNING & DECISION BY THE PILOT, AND AN INADVERTENT STALL/SPIN WHILE MANEUVERING FOR A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA106
- Event ID
- 20001212X22967
- Case number
- MIA90FA106
- 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: c35dc09d4422495e19d3e9881afb24f07262d7f630f9ad2bb682f2d7c925357a; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:46:43.307Z.