MIA90LA162 · Piper PA-30
Piper PA-30 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Boca Raton Airport (BCT)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90LA162
- 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
- N3R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Boca Raton Airport (BCT), Boca Raton, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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); Wire, transmission
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FUEL TANKS WERE TOPPED THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ACCIDENT & THE ACFT WAS LEFT OUTSIDE. DURING THE PREFLT, THE PLT DRAINED EACH FUEL TANK FOR ABOUT 5 SECONDS USING THE COCKPIT DRAIN BUT A CONTAINER WAS NOT USED. ENG RUNUP PRIOR TO DEPARTURE WAS NORMAL. AFTER ROTATION, ACFT YAWED TO THE LT. HE APPLIED RT RUDDER BUT THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES, A POWERLINE, THEN THE GROUND. THERE WAS NO FIRE. FIRE DEPT PERSONNEL TURNED OFF THE FUEL SELECTORS WHICH WERE POSITIONED FROM EACH MAIN TANK TO ENG. FUEL TANKS WERE DRAINED & NO DETERMINATION COULD BE MADE AS TO WHETHER THERE WERE CONTAMINANTS. LT ENG GASCOLATOR WAS CLEAN BUT RT ENG GASCOLATOR CONTAINED SEDIMENT. EXAM OF THE LT ENG REVEALED THE LT MAG WAS NOT CORRECTLY TIMED TO THE ENG BUT THE RT MAG WAS. BOTH MAGNETOS WERE TESTED & OPERATED NORMALLY. THE FUEL SERVO, DISTRIBUTOR VALVE, NOZZLES & LINES WERE REMOVED FOR TESTING & OPERATED NORMALLY. NO DETERMINATION COULD BE MADE AS TO THE REASON FOR THE REPORTED LOSS OF ENG PWR FROM THE LT ENG.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB FOLLOWING THE REPORTED LOSS OF POWER FROM THE LEFT ENGINE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90LA162
- Event ID
- 20001212X23768
- Case number
- MIA90LA162
- 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: 8d236b26767d7e586799046cbc75a98a73bbe93fc36a4b29b99813e90117263f; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:47:50.091Z.