MIA86LA227 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From XO4 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86LA227
- 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-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N9716J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From XO4To 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Fuel system › Water
- Object › Tree(s)
- Pilot in command › Abort, not performed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT SUSTAINED ENG FAILURE IMMEDIATELY AFTER LIFT-OFF & COLLIDED WITH A TREE NEAR THE END OF THE RWY. THE PLT STATED THAT THE TAKE-OFF ROLL HAD BEEN 'SLUGGISH'. HE SAID THAT IT WAS HIS PRACTICE TO KEEP HIS ACFT OUTDOORS & TO ONLY FUEL THE TANKS TO ABOUT 1/2 CAPACITY SO AS TO AVOID THE WEIGHT PENALTY. HE LAST FLEW THE ACFT ABOUT 1 WEEK PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT FOR ABOUT 1/2 HR & HE DID NOT REFUEL AFTER THE LAST FLT. DURING PREFLT INSPECTION HE STATED THAT HE DRAINED A QUANTITY OF WATER FROM THE FUEL SYSTEM. HE SAID THERE HAD BEEN A LOT OF RAIN IN THE AREA RECENTLY. HE STATED THAT HE HAD DRAINED WATER FROM THE FUEL SYSTEM ON OTHER OCCASIONS DURING HIS PREFLT INSPECTIONS. AFTER THE ACCIDENT, AN EXAM OF THE GASCOLATOR REVEALED THE PRESENCE OF A CONSIDERABLE QUANTITY OF WATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86LA227
- Event ID
- 20001213X34546
- Case number
- MIA86LA227
- 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: 59cae90524622893ebe1b9e67551fe01e666554ec3f09657acf8f316e412c83b; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:11:37.158Z.