Chapman Air Piper PA-32-300 incident
Piper PA-32-300 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) to Orlando Executive Airport (ORL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86IA001
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-32-300
- 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
- N8614N
- Operator
- Chapman Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Jacksonville, FLTo Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · climb to 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Cracked
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Jacksonville, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTURE FLIGHT EXPERIENCED LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND VISIBLE SMOKE COMING FROM THE WINDSHIELD EXHAUST DUCTS. THE ENGINE SUBSEQUENTLY FAILED BUT THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO REGAIN POWER AND RETURN TO THE AIRPORT FOR A NORMAL LANDING. POST LANDING INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED AN EXHAUST PIPE HAD CRACKED AND CAUSED THE LOWER ENGINE COWLING TO CATCH FIRE JUST FORWARD OF THE ENGIN AIR INTAKE. THE EXHAIST HAD CRACKED WHERE A PREVIOUS REPAIR HAD BEEN MADE DUE TO A PREVIOUS CRACK. THE REPAIR WAS IMPROPER DUE TO THE WELD NOT FULLY PENETRATING THE CRACKED METAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86IA001
- Event ID
- 20001214X38077
- Case number
- MIA86IA001
- 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: 62801dd0884a3c76a4dfc44eedab018b8cbdccfce8dd7ab0242855e144b5380d; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:14:39.769Z.