MIA85LA111 · Piper PA-32R
Piper PA-32R · Accident: vortex turbulence encountered en route
From X82 · FT. PIERCE, FL to North Perry Airport (HWO)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85LA111
- 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-32R
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N120DG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From X82 · FT. PIERCE, FLTo North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Vortex turbulence encountered
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE, THE PLT CONTACTED PALM BEACH APCH CONTROL & OBTAIN FLT FOLLOWING. HE REPORTED THAT HE WAS 20 MI NORTH & WISHED TO PROCEED SOUTHBOUND ALONG THE COAST. THE CONTROLLER ACKNOWLEDGED THE REQUEST & ADVISED THE PLT TO REMAIN VFR. THE CONTROLLER DID NOT SPECIFY AN ALTITUDE, BUT QUERRIED AS TO WHETHER THE PLT INTENDED TO REMAIN BELOW 1000 FT. THE PLT DESCENDED FROM 1500 FT TO 700 FT & CONTD. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE CONTROLLER ADVISED THE PLT OF HEAVY JET TRAFFIC AT HIS 1 O'CLOCK PSN AT 1-1/2 MI, HEADING WESTBOUND. APRX 1 MIN LATER, THE PLT OF N120DG REPORTED THAT HE HAD JUST ENCOUNTERED WAKE TURBULENCE FROM THE HEAVY JET. THE PLT CONTD TO HIS DESTINATION. AFTER LANDING, THE PASSENGER, WHO RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES, WAS TAKEN TO A HOSPITAL, TREATED & RELEASED. THE PLT FLEW THE ACFT BACK TO DAYTONA. DURING A POST FLIGHT INSPECTION, SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE WAS FND WHICH INCLUDED WRINKLED WING SKIN, POPPED RIVETS & DEFORMATION OF THE FIREWALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85LA111
- Event ID
- 20001214X35760
- Case number
- MIA85LA111
- 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: b5ff4fd7288e3d55e95857fe01775d859f8d849eb8572810746a77898bad293a; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:57:46.465Z.