MIA84FA265 · Piper PA-31-350
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) to MTEG · BAHAMAS
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA84FA265
- 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
- 1 · 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-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
- N74982
- Operator
- Ronald Kaldor
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Jacksonville, FLTo MTEG · BAHAMAS
- 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 · 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Disconnected
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FLT DEPARTED IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. AFTER DEPARTURE PLT FAILED TO MAINTAIN ASSIGNED HEADINGS SEVERAL TIMES AND HAD TO BE CORRECTED BY ATC. AFTER 15 MINS OF FLIGHT THE PLT REPORTED HE WAS HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE RIGHT ENGINE AND WOULD LIKE TO RETURN TO THE ARPT. ATC ADVISED THE PLT THAT CRAIG ARPT WAS AVAILABLE AND WAS CURRENTLY REPORTING VFR CONDITIONS. PLT STATED HE WANTED TO GO TO JAX INT'L BECAUSE THE 4000 FT RWY AT CRAIG WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH. JAX INT'L WAS REPORTING IFR CONDITIONS. THE PLT CONTINUED TO HAVE TROUBLE HOLDING HEADINGS WHILE BEING VECTORED FOR AN ILS APCH. WHILE IN THE DOWNWIND POSITION FOR THE APCH THE PLT ASKED ATC, 'HOW FAR IS 982 FROM LANDING?' AS THE ACFT WAS TURNED ONTO THE LOCALIZER THE PLT CALLED AND STATED HE HAD LOST CONTROL AND WAS IN A SPIN. POST CRASH INSPECTION OF THE RIGHT ENGINE REVEALED THE #5 CYLINDER HAD DETONATED UNTIL A HOLE WAS BURNED IN THE PISTON. ADDITIONALLY THE #5 AND #6 RODS HAD BURN DAMAGE AND THE #6 ROD BOLTS HAD FAILED IN OVERLOAD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA84FA265
- Event ID
- 20001214X41144
- Case number
- MIA84FA265
- 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: 63625e78a225097c935ad4494a3e34b77c9d83c47cd1cbe8cc2bf31cef483af9; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:19:01.832Z.