MIA01LA182 · Piper PA-34-200T
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Boca Raton Airport (BCT) to Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA01LA182
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N3054J
- Operator
- Kenneth B. Miller · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boca Raton Airport (BCT), Boca Raton, FLTo Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, 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 · 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Pole
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Just after takeoff the pilot reported that the left engine lost power. He checked that the mixture, propellers, and throttles were all full forward, and that the fuel selector was "on." He said, "...I checked the fuel selectors by feel only." He recycled the left engine feather control and made the decision to land gear up. He retracted the landing gear, and attempted to feather the left engine again without success. At this point he could not maintain altitude or airspeed, estimated that his altitude was "between 150-200 feet," and the airspeed had decayed to 78 knots (83 was Vmc). He elected to land on an interstate highway, before the airplane started a Vmc roll. He landed in a southerly direction on the northbound lanes of the highway, first striking a light pole with the left wing, and then seven vehicles. After coming to a stop, the two occupants evacuated the airplane after the passenger said he was "in a puddle of fuel." The pilot stated that he "..…reached down and moved the fuel selectors back. They were full forward in the 'on' position. I missed the 'off ' and mistakenly moved them to crossfeed as I exited the airplane." Examination of the fuel selectors at the crash site revealed that both engine fuel selectors were in the "crossfeed" position. The left engine was test run, and no discrepancies were found. Fuel was found in the left engine. The fuel was visually examined for contamination and water, none was observed. Examination of the right engine revealed, no discrepancies.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power, and the pilot unable to feather the propeller for undetermined reasons, which resulted in a forced landing on a highway, subsequent impact with a pole and vehicles.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA01LA182
- Event ID
- 20010716X01434
- Case number
- MIA01LA182
- 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, coordinates. 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: 7e26c2b1982facf280af3341cb7b16600f5ec94eb4cc35f8524a006161571e46; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:54:37.031Z.