MIA91LA043 · Piper PA-28-151
Piper PA-28-151 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) to Witham Field (SUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA043
- 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-28-151
- 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
- N4480F
- Operator
- Zimmerman, Barry L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, FLTo Witham Field (SUA), Stuart, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE FLT ABOUT 1/2 MILE OFFSHORE AT AN ALT OF 500 FT, THE PLT STATED THAT HE HEARD A KNOCKING SOUND & THE ENG LOST POWER. UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALT, HE DITCHED THE ACFT. THE ACFT WAS RECOVERED & THE ENG WAS REMOVED FOR FURTHER EXAM. EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THAT THE NO.2 CYL EXHAUST VALVE FAILED DUE TO A WORN VALVE GUIDE. THE INTERNAL DIAMETER OF THE VALVE GUIDE AT THE TOP MEASURED .539' & THE BOTTOM MEASURE .563'. FACTORY SPECIFICATIONS ARE .4985' TO .4995'. THE ENG LOGBOOKS WERE INSIDE THE ACFT & WERE NOT RECOVERED.
Probable cause
PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FAILURE OF AN EXHAUST VALVE, DUE TO A VALVE GUIDE THAT WAS WORN BEYOND SPECIFICATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA043
- Event ID
- 20001212X24789
- Case number
- MIA91LA043
- 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: a5483edd08b1728782b80e982ecaeba300f7e25c292eae8a21dfa55a22c22b38; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:02:23.056Z.