MIA89LA127 · Air Tractor AT-301
S.Eastern Aerial Crop SVC Air Tractor AT-301 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA127
- 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
Air Tractor AT-301
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-301
- 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
- N3159D
- Operator
- S.Eastern Aerial Crop SVC
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR), Fort Pierce, FLTo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- 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, cylinder › Failure, total
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fort Pierce, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT WHILE CLIMBING AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ACFT ENG STARTED TO GRADUALLY LOSE POWER, THEN STARTED MISSING. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN SOME PALMETTO BUSHES, WHICH DAMAGED THE ACFT'S LANDING GEAR & WINGS. AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THE #5 CYLINDER ASSEMBLY WAS CRACKED, WHICH RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF POWER. THE PLT NOTED THAT THERE WERE HOMES IN THE AREA, WHICH PRECLUDED HIM FROM JETTISONING HIS LOAD.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE NUMBER FIVE CYLINDER. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PROXIMITY OF HOMES IN THE AREA, WHICH PRECLUDED JETTISONING OF THE CHEMICAL LOAD, AND HIGH VEGETATION IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA127
- Event ID
- 20001213X28149
- Case number
- MIA89LA127
- 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: 700bde72e60965b8613b8e93a8c4b009e6a5e3a803cae3bde45a8600a7061b01; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:42:40.063Z.