MIA86FA115 · Pitts SPECIAL
Pitts SPECIAL · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Miami Executive Airport (TMB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86FA115
- 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
- 1 · 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
Pitts SPECIAL
- Aircraft type
- Pitts SPECIAL
- 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
- N501L
- Operator
- Robert M. Vagner · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, 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 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Altitude › Inadequate
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ON A FLT TO PRACTICE AEROBATIC MNVRS IN A DESIGNATED PRACTICE AREA. A WITNESS, WHO WAS DRIVING NEARBY, STATED THAT HE SAW THE ACFT 'FALLING STRAIGHT DOWN' & CRASH IN A TOMATO FIELD. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN, RGT WING LOW ATTITUDE. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE ACFT'S FUEL SYS & NO EVIDENCE OF A FUEL SPILL WAS NOTED. ALSO, NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. TOXICOLOGY CHECKS INDICATED THERE WAS A SLIGHT AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL IN THE PLT'S BLOOD, BUT NO ALCOHOL WAS DETECTED IN HIS STOMACH CONTENTS OR URINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86FA115
- Event ID
- 20001213X33344
- Case number
- MIA86FA115
- 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: 0453335d4106f3cb2ceffbe225f5180ff410c148ad33b1fdb4947efbe421f14b; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:37:03.563Z.