MIA91LA016 · Piper PA-28-181
Quantico Marine Corps Flying Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Charlotte-Monroe Executive Airport (EQY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA016
- 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-28-181
- 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
- N21175
- Operator
- Quantico Marine Corps Flying
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charlotte-Monroe Executive Airport (EQY), Monroe, NCTo not recorded
- 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 final
- 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 › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED HE PERFORMED FUEL CONSUMPTION CALCULATIONS FOR THE FLT & DETERMINED THAT THE ENDURACE ACCORDING TO THE ACFT PERFORMANCE CHARTS, WAS 5 HRS 42 MINUTES. THE FLT DEPARTED WITH FULL FUEL TANKS & WHEN IT WAS APRX 6 MILES NORTH OF THE DESTINATION ARPT, THE ENG BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH THEN QUIT. HE RESTARTED IT & ADVISED ATC THAT THE ACFT WAS LOW ON FUEL BUT THE ENG QUIT AGAIN. HE WAS UNABLE TO RESTART IT & DUE TO UNSUITABLE TERRAIN, ELECTED TO DITCH THE ACFT IN A LAKE SHORT OF THE ARPT. ALL OCCUPANTS ESCAPED THE ACFT & WERE RESCUED A SHORT TIME LATER. THE ELAPSED TIME FROM DEPARTURE TO THE ACCIDENT WAS 4 HRS 32 MINUTES. THE PLT FURTHER STATED THAT THE ACFT'S CLOCK WAS 30-40 MINUTES SLOW & THE FUEL GAUGES WERE INACCURATE. HE STATED HIS PROCEDURE FOR LEANING THE FUEL/AIR MIXTURE IS TO PULL THE MIXTURE CONTROL UNTIL THE ENG BEGINS TO RUN ROUGH THEN PUSH IT IN UNTIL THE ENG RUNS SMOOTH. THE ACFT'S PERFORMANCE CHARTS USE AN EGT GAGE (WHICH WAS INSTALLED) AS A REFERENCE.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PLANNING BY THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA016
- Event ID
- 20001212X24513
- Case number
- MIA91LA016
- 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: 0fb2181da39cf0ed4f47529adb076bd50d72ce8c03bae31f112cddbae3e26200; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:42:50.295Z.