MIA89LA013 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Tupelo Regional Airport (TUP) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA013
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N6877Y
- Operator
- Bannerman, Bemp · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tupelo Regional Airport (TUP), Tupelo, MSTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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
- 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 starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OPERATOR HAD APPLIED FOR AN ON-DEMAND/AIR TAXI CERT, BUT HAD NOT OBTAINED APPROVAL. AFTER LVL-OFF ON A FLT TO CARRY CANCELED CHECKS, THE PLT ELECTED TO USE THE REMAINING FUEL FM THE INBD TANKS. HE STATED THAT SOON THEREAFTER, THE LEFT ENG BGN RUNNING ROUGH, SO HE SELECTED THE OTBD MAIN 'ON THE LEFT SIDE WITH THE BOOST PUMP ON AND NOTHING HAPPENED.' HESAID HE THEN PSND THE L FUEL SELECTOR TO THE INBD TANK & NORMAL ENG OPN RETURNED, MOMENTARILY. AN IDENTICAL SCENARIO OCCURRED ON THE RGT SIDE. AFTER A DUAL PWR LOSS, THE PLT TRIED TO RTRN BACK TO THE DEP ARPT, BUT WAS UNABLE. HE LNDD IN A FIELD, BUT THE ACFT HIT TREES BEFORE STOPPING. AN EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED THE INBD TANKS WERE EMPTY, BUT THE OTBD TANKS WERE FULL OF FUEL. THE PSN OF THE FUEL SELECTORS (WHEN THE ENGS LOST POWER) WAS NOT DETERMINED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FND. THE FUEL SELECTOR PANEL WAS ON THE FLOOR BTN THE PLT & COPLT SEATS. DUE TO RE-UPHOLSTER-ING OF THE SEATS, THE PLT COULD NOT SEE THE PANEL UNLESS HE PULLED THE SEAT CUSHIONS APART.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA013
- Event ID
- 20001213X27117
- Case number
- MIA89LA013
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1988-10-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 67c28fdc73a572f34c4e4cb21d06743a893487884906600e5a86687abc9c72a8; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:34:14.837Z.