MIA89FA065 · Britten-Norman BN-2A
Britten-Norman BN-2A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Antonio Rivera Rodriguez Airport (VQS) to Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89FA065
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Britten-Norman BN-2A
- Aircraft type
- Britten Norman BN-2
- 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
- N457SA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Antonio Rivera Rodriguez Airport (VQS), Vieques, PRTo Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG), San Juan, PR
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · descent
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Carolina, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT ORDERED 42 GALLONS OF FUEL TO BE ADDED TO THE ACFT WHICH WOULD BRING THE TOTAL FUEL LOAD TO 60 GALLONS. THE LINEMAN ADDED 4.2 GALLONS BRINGING THE TOTAL FUEL LOAD TO 22.2 GALLONS. THE PLT DID NOT VERIFY THE FUEL LOAD PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE ACFT WAS FLOWN FROM SAN JUAN TO VIEQUES IN WHICH 12 GALLONS WERE BURNED. NO FUEL WAS ADDED AND THE PLT AGAIN DID NOT VERIFY HIS FUEL LOAD. THE FLT DEPARTED VIEQUES EN ROUTE BACK TO SAN JUAN WITH 10.2 GALLONS OF FUEL. ON DESCENT INTO SAN JUAN BOTH ENGINES FAILED AND A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN A SUGAR CANE FIELD. AFTER ROLLING ABOUT 100 YDS THE LEFT LDG GR COLLAPSED. POST CRASH EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT REVEALED IT CONTAINED 36 OUNCES OF FUEL WITH NO EVIDENCE OF LEAKAGE. THE ENGINES WERE OPERATED TO FULL POWER WITH NO EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION AFTER THE ACCIDENT. THE LINEMAN HAD BEEN HIRED AS A PART-TIME EMPLOYEE ON 1/2/89. HE STATED HE WAS WORKING ONLY HIS FIFTH DAY AND THAT HE HAD NO FORMAL REFUELING TRNG.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION AND THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO INSURE THAT THE PROPER FUEL LOAD WAS PLACED ON THE AIRCRAFT FOR THE FLIGHT. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS INCLUDED THE IMPROPER REFUELING OF THE AIRCRAFT, IMPROPER INITIAL TRAINING OF THE REFUELER AND THE CROP, WHICH CAUSED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89FA065
- Event ID
- 20001213X27621
- Case number
- MIA89FA065
- 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: ad9b7ce7f300a2c5f39921c8ed69480355a63bff21f5032ec700d96cab77313f; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:14:56.388Z.