MIA86FA028 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From PFN · Panama City, FL to Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86FA028
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32-260
- 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
- N4862S
- Operator
- George D. Price, Et Al
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PFN · Panama City, FLTo Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR), FT. PIERCE, 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Wing, spar › Overload
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT WAS ON A VFR X-COUNTRY AT 9500 FT WITH ATC FLT FOLLOWING.THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PLT ADVISED ATC THAT HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN VFR & CLIMBED TO 11,000 FT. HE AGAIN AVISED HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN VFR & WAS GOING TO DESCEND. THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED BY ATC TO ENTER A LEFT TURN FROM SSE THROUGH NORTH THROUGH WEST, WHERE IT DISAPPEARED FROM THE RADAR SCOPE. A PLT WITNESS ON THE GROUND HEARD THE ACFT IN THE CLOUDS AS ENGINE POWER WAS INCREASED & DECREASED, THEN OBSERVED THE ACFT EMERGE FROM THE CLOUD BASE IN A SPIN WITH A PORTION OF THE RIGHT WING MISSING. THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A SWAMP KILLING ALL 3 OCCUPANTS.ON THE PREVIOUS DAY, A MECHANIC HAD ADVISED THE PLT THAT THE ENGINE DRIVEN VACCUM PUMP WAS INOP. THE ATTITUDE INDICATOR & HEADING INDICATOR ARE VACCUM POWERED. THE GROUND WITNESS STATED THAT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, IT WAS VFR AT GROUND LEVEL WITH THE CLOUD BASE ESTIMATED AT 2000 FT & VISIBILITY AT LEAST 5 MI.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86FA028
- Event ID
- 20001214X38276
- Case number
- MIA86FA028
- 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: 4fd86fde539e702d7a9b7feb146696eddc214ca7d232f6a34449fe6c222725ef; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:46:51.574Z.