MIA89FA044 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Peter O Knight Airport (TPF) to Mobile Regional Airport (MOB)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89FA044
- 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
- 4 · 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-28-161
- 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
- N8033Y
- Operator
- Sierra, Joseph J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Peter O Knight Airport (TPF), Tampa, FLTo Mobile Regional Airport (MOB), Mobile, AL
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE PLT WAS ADZD OF AN APCHG COLD FRONT IN THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE AS WELL AS A FORECAST OF HVY THUNDER- STORM ACTIVITY IN THE AREA OF PENSACOLA. EN ROUTE, HE WAS PROVIDED VFR FLT FOLLOWING FROM PENSACOLA APCH CTL WHILE CRUISING AT 6500 FT. OTHER FLTS THAT WERE OPERATING IN THE AREA AT LOWER ALTITUDE WERE DEVIATING AROUND WX TO REMAIN IN VFR CONDS. AT ABOUT 1214 CST, THE ACFT ENTERED A RAPID DSCNT. SUBSEQUENTLY, AN INFLT BREAKUP OF THE ACFT OCCURRED & WRECKAGE WAS SCATTERED OVER A 1735 FT AREA. WITNESSES RPRTD THAT JUST BEFORE IMPACT, THEY HEARD THE ENG ROARING IN THE CLOUDS. THEY RPRTD THE ACFT CAME OUT OF A CLOUD BASE & SHED ITS WINGS & TAIL BEFORE CRASHING. THEY ALSO RPRTD LOW CLOUDSIN THE VICINITY WITH GUSTY SURFACE WINDS & RAIN. AN EXAM REVEALED THE WINGS & TAIL SURFACES HAD SEPD IN OVERLOAD. NO PRE-ACDNT FAILURE, MALFUNCTION OR FATIGUE OF THE ACFT WAS FND. THE ACFT WAS ESTD TO BE 254 LBS OVER ITS MAX GROSS WT LIMIT & THE CG WAS ESTD TO BE .1 INCH BEHIND THE AFT LIMIT. THE PLT'S MED CERT WAS DATED 10/16/86.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89FA044
- Event ID
- 20001213X27292
- Case number
- MIA89FA044
- 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: a9c7af11926d9547c1809c38e523a537127f25ed62178f850f243c68849e952c; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:28:26.183Z.