MIA91LA026 · Piper PA-38-112
ST. Lucie Air Academy Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From FL23 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA026
- 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-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
- N25109
- Operator
- ST. Lucie Air Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FL23To 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
- 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)
- 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(cfi) › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fort Pierce, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CFI STATED THAT HE ALLOWED THE STUDENT TO TAKEOFF FROM THE 2,500 FT GRASS RWY. PRIOR TO DEPARTURE THERE WAS A DISAGREEMENT ON THE CORRECT PROCEDURE & THE PLT'S OPERATING HANDBOOK WAS CONSULTED. DURING THE GROUND ROLL ABOUT 1/2 WAY DOWN THE RWY, HE CONSIDERED ABORTING THE TAKEOFF BECAUSE THE ACFT WAS SLOW TO ACCELERATE BUT DID NOT. THE ACFT REMAINED IN GROUND EFFECT & ABOUT 3/4 DOWN THE RWY, HAD NOT ACCELERATED ENOUGH TO CLIMB. WITH INSUFFICIENT RWY REMAINING & OBSTRUCTIONS AHEAD, THE CFI TOOK CONTROL & MANEUVERED THE ACFT ALONG A ROAD WHILE ATTEMPTING TO CLIMB. THE RT WING COLLIDED WITH TREES & THE ACFT THEN CRASHED INTO TREES & CAME TO REST. THE CFI FURTHER STATED THAT THERE WAS NO ENG FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION & WHEN ASKED HOW THIS ACCIDENT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED, HE STATED THAT HE SHOULD NOT HAVE FLOWN INTO THAT AIRSTRIP. ACCORDING TO AN FAA OPS INSPECTOR WHO ARRIVED 5 HOURS LATER, THE GRASS WAS 4 INCHES HIGH & THE RWY WAS SOFT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PREFLIGHT DECISION OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT TO ALLOW THE STUDENT TO TAKEOFF FROM THE SOFT GRASS RUNWAY AND HIS FAILURE TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA026
- Event ID
- 20001212X24660
- Case number
- MIA91LA026
- 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: c07c50a27133f1fcbd258a17b6d5243602be6388072104a845a121260558f02e; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:10:05.623Z.