MIA85FA040 · Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) to Pensacola International Airport (PNS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85FA040
- 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-32R-301T PA-32R-301
- 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
- N4316P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FLTo Pensacola International Airport (PNS), Pensacola, 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PREFLT WX BRIEF INCLUDED ADVISORY FOR SCATTERED SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS ALONG ROUTE OF FLT. DEPARTED IN VFR CONDITIONS BUT ENCOUNTERED DETERIORATING WX ENROUTE, RECEIVED INFLT WX ADVISORY TO EXPECT LOW CLNGS AND REDUCED VISIBILITY AHEAD. PLT STATED HE 'WOULD KEEP AN EYE ON THE WEATHER. 'ABOUT 50 MINS LATER, PLT REQUESTED RADAR VECTORS TO ASSIST IN CIRCUMNAVIGATING RAIN SHOWERS. VECOTR GIVEN BUT ACFT TGT OBSERVED NOT FOLLOWING VECTOR. PLT NEXT REQUEDTED A HEADING TO 'GET HIM OUT OF WEATHER.' STATING HE WAS IN RAIN AND 'HAVING A HARD TIME.' TGT DISAPPEARED FROM RADAR SHORTLY THEREAFTER. INVESTIGATION REVEALED ACFT IMPACTED IN HEAVILY WOODED AREA IN NEAR-VERTICAL ATTITUDE AT HIGH RATE OF SPEED. WITNESSES HEARD SOUNDS OF HIGH ENGINE POWER PRIOR TO IMPACT; CITED WX CONDS AS DRIVING RAIN, GUSTY WINDS AND REDUCED VISIBILITY IN RAIN AND OVERCAST-INDUCED DARKNESS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85FA040
- Event ID
- 20001214X41618
- Case number
- MIA85FA040
- 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: 26426d163021ed9f9d7f7e346467c7afc7d63621c3e5d6f13dd9c574e13e7385; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:14:53.105Z.