MIA90FA027 · Piper PA-23-250
Hilderbrand Aero Services Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From North Perry Airport (HWO) to Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA027
- 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
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
- N15LH
- Operator
- Hilderbrand Aero Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, FLTo Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF), Miami, FL
- 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
- 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 contamination
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ACFT WAS MANEUVERED DOWNWIND ABOUT 1/2 MI SOUTH OF THE ARPT AT APRX 1000' AGL. WHEN THE ACFT WAS ABEAM MID-FIELD, THE PLT REQUESTED CLNC TO LAND BACK ON THE ARPT. HE WAS CLRD FOR RIGHT TRAFFIC TO LAND ON RWY 9R & WAS ASKED IF HE HAD ANY DIFFICULTIES. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PLT REPLIED THAT BOTH ENGS HAD LOST POWER. HE TURNED TOWARD THE ARPT, BUT WAS UNABLE TO REACH THE RWY. DRG AN EMERG LANDING, THE ACFT HIT A CHAIN LINK FENCE & WAS EXTENSIVELY DMGD.AN EXAM REVEALED THERE WAS WATER & RESIDUE IN THE FUEL SYS. THE OWNER HAD PURCHASED THE PREVIOUSLY SEIZED ACFT AT A SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT SALE. UNTIL THE DAY OF THE ACDNT, THE ACFT HAD NOT BEEN REFUEL SINCE IT WAS LAST FLOWN ON 7/27/89. AN ANNUAL INSPN HAD BEEN COMPLETED ON 9/22/89. THE ACDNT FLT WAS THE 1ST FLT AFTER THE ANNUAL INSPN & IT LASTED APRX 4 MIN. NEITHER PROP WAS FEATHERED AFTER THE ENGS LOST POWER.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE ANNUAL INSPECTION BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL AND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FAILURE TO DETECT WATER AND CONTAMINATION (RESIDUE) IN THE FUEL. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: FAILURE OF THE PLT TO FEATHER THE PROPELLERS AND A FENCE IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA027
- Event ID
- 20001213X29835
- Case number
- MIA90FA027
- 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: d27f3fb303498ef13fee3e79123cd98b8ca4121cc4713f47f65db49ae1e537dc; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:59:24.501Z.