MIA90FA033 · Piper AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6
Piper AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) to Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA033
- 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
- 2 · 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 AEROSTAR 601P AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Piper AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N6079H
- Operator
- Johnston, Douglas W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FLTo Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH), Marathon, 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Aircraft control › Not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF ON AN IFR FLT. AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT DID NOT CONTACT DEPARTURE CONTROL. A SEARCH WAS INITIATED & THE ACFT WAS FOUND NEAR THE DEPARTURE END OF RWY 7. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED IN A LEFT WING DOWN, NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL DURING TAKEOFF FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON WHICH RESULTED IN A COLLISION WITH THE GROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA033
- Event ID
- 20001213X29837
- Case number
- MIA90FA033
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-12-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 84eea7a8f8b92cf95d4158dfbb7ee9e839cb21c451d9c80fc961983a7dc69080; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:04:04.127Z.