MIA88LA033 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: fire/explosion while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88LA033
- 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
- N5086Y
- Operator
- Munim, Mary Ellen · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Fire/explosion
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER STARTING THE LEFT ENGINE HE HEARD AN EXPLOSION AND SAW FLAME SPREADING FROM THE ACCESSORY AREA OF THE LEFT ENGINE TOWARD THE LEFT WING TIP AND THE CABIN. HE SHUT DOWN THE ENGINE BY TURNING OFF THE MAGNETOS AND HE AND HIS PASSENGER EXITED THE AIRCRAFT. THE LEFT WING AND CABIN THEN BECAME COMPLETELY ENGULFED IN FLAME. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED EXTENSIVE FIRE DAMAGE IN THE ACCESSORY AREA OF THE LEFT ENGINE AND THE FUEL AND HYDRAULIC LINES IN THIS AREA TO HAVE BEEN BURNED TO ALMOST DESTRUCTION. ADDITIONALLY THE FUEL CAPS IN BOTH WINGS WERE FOUND TO HAVE BEEN WRAPPED WITH RAGS WHICH THE PLT STATED WAS TO PREVENT THEM FROM LEAKING. THE PLT STATED THE LOGBOOKS WERE IN THE AIRCRAFT AND BURNED AND THAT HE COULD NOT REMEMBER WHO DID THE LAST INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88LA033
- Event ID
- 20001213X32583
- Case number
- MIA88LA033
- 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: a105aafe35661bbe18a2dd35df4dcab47a8fc5d5ada1e8bbeb220aa774113004; retrieved 2026-09-23T11:36:57.526Z.