MIA91LA021 · Cessna 170
Cessna 170 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA021
- 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
Cessna 170
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N4023V
- Operator
- Torregrosa, Antonio · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Unqualified person › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Unqualified person › Lowering of flaps, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Patillas, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT DOES NOT HAVE A PLT CERTIFICATE. HE STATED IT TOOK LONGER THAN USUAL TO RAISE THE TAIL DURING THE GROUND ROLL. THE FLT WAS ABOUT 3/4 DOWN THE 2,000 FT RWY, WITH 10 DEGS OF FLAPS LOWERED, WHEN HE REALIZED THAT THE AIRSPEED WAS INSUFFICIENT TO BECOME AIRBORNE & THERE WASN'T ENOUGH RWY REMAINING TO STOP. HE CONTINUED THE TAKEOFF BUT THE MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLIDED WITH A FENCE AT THE END OF THE RWY. THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A FIELD. THERE WAS NO ENG FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. ACCORDING TO THE OWNER'S MANUAL, FULL FLAPS (30 DEGS) SHOULD BE USED FOR THE SHORTEST TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, HE HAD ACCUMULATED APRX 30 HRS IN THIS MAKE & MODEL ACFT BUT HAD NOT RECEIVED FORMAL TRAINING. REVIEW OF HIS LOGBOOK REVEALED THAT HE HAD LOGGED APRX 40 HOURS IN THE PREVIOUS 17 YRS. THE LAST LOGGED ENTRY WAS 9 YRS 4 MOS EARLIER.
Probable cause
THE ACCIDENT WAS FAILURE OF THE NON CERTIFICATED PILOT TO LOWER THE FLAPS TO THE CORRECT POSITION FOR TAKEOFF AND FAILURE TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF DUE TO INSUFFICIENT ACCELERATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA021
- Event ID
- 20001212X24658
- Case number
- MIA91LA021
- 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: a6ffc7ee9a481c5882cd4a8b2e4898f24e0399e29c4d170e9d77009c83b448f2; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:11:05.091Z.