MIA85LA082 · Piper PA-31-350
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Key West International Airport (EYW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85LA082
- 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-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N70CZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key West International Airport (EYW), Key West, 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emotional reaction
- Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type operation
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not attained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Visual/aural perception
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED INTO THE OCEAN SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF ON AN UNAUTORIZED FLT. THE PLT WAS A STUDENT PLT WHO WORKED AS A REFUELER OF ACFT. THE STUDENT PLT TOOK THE UNATTENDED PARKED ACFT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND WENT FOR A SOLO FLT AT SOMETIME AROUND 0200 HRS. THE FLT ENDED ALMOST AS SOON AS IT BEGAN AS THE ACFT CRASHED INTO THE OCEAN 300 YARDS OFFSHORE FROM KEY WEST, FL. THE ACFT SANK IN 10 FT OF WATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85LA082
- Event ID
- 20001214X35578
- Case number
- MIA85LA082
- 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: 0f442f3b79c47b147e2c0cddfcaa267192cdc3131e1211c64f5c3239e34d3c31; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:00:02.077Z.