MIA89LA218 · Cessna 402C
Jet Flite Cessna 402C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to South Bimini Airport (MYBS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA218
- 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
Cessna 402C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N5851C
- Operator
- Jet Flite
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo South Bimini Airport (MYBS), BIMINI
- 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
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel boost pump selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT WAS ADVISED BY TWR PERSONNEL THAT BOTH ENG'S WERE TRAILING SMOKE. A WITNESS DESCRIBED THE SMOKE OR VAPOR AS BLACK IN COLOR. THIS IS INDICATIVE OF A RICH MIXTURE. THE PLT THEN REPORTED THAT THE RT ENG LOST POWER & ATTEMPTS TO CORRECT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. HE THEN SECURED THE ENG & RETURNED TO LAND. AFTER TURNING BASE & LOWERING 15 DEG FLAPS & THE LANDING GEAR, HE REPORTED THE LT ENG LOST POWER. DURING THE DESCENT THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES BEFORE COMING TO REST IN A CANAL SHORT OF THE RWY. THE ACFT WAS RECOVERED & BOTH ENG'S RAN & OPERATED NORMALLY. THE RT ENG AUX PUMP OPS CHECKED GOOD. THE LT ENG AUX PUMP WAS INOP DUE TO IMPACT DAMAGE. THE PLT STATED THE AUX PUMPS WERE OFF DURING TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO THE FLT MANUAL. THE PUMPS SHOULD BE POSITIONED TO LOW FOR TAKEOFF & VAPOR CLEARING, WHICH IS EVIDENCED BY A 'NERVOUS' FUEL FLOW NEEDLE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO POSITION THE AUXILIARY PUMP TO LOW FOR TAKEOFF, COMPUNDED BY IMPROPER PROCUDERES USED DURING THE RESULTANT IN-FLIGHT EMERGENCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA218
- Event ID
- 20001213X29185
- Case number
- MIA89LA218
- 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: b63b992c747b0c393fcd6a6180f5cc7c518aba75a15919097c285a43f935b270; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:16:34.524Z.