MIA82FA092 · Cessna 421B
Cessna 421B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From C · Port-au-Prince to C · FT.LAUDERDALE, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA82FA092
- 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
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 421B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- Y207P
- Operator
- Jaime Taurel
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Port-au-PrinceTo C · FT.LAUDERDALE, 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
- Approach
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Aircraft performance, two or more engines › Inoperative
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel system, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
REPORTEDLY, THE LEFT ENGINE QUIT DURING AN APPROACH TO LAND WHILE THE AIRCRAFT WAS AT ABOUT 500 FT AGL WITH THE GEAR AND FLAPS DOWN. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE IMMEDIATELY CHECKED THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLES TO BE SURE THEY WERE BOTH IN THE INDENT, WHICH THEY WERE. HE THEN TURNED THE RIGHT SELECTOR TO THE "LEFT MAIN" POSITION. SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE RIGHT ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND ON THE BEACH. HE MOVED THE GEAR HANDLE UP AND TURNED TO PARALLEL THE BEACH. JUST BEFORE TOUCHDOWN, HE SAW A MAN SITTING DIRECTLY IN HIS PATH AND MANEUVERED TO LAND CLOSER TO THE WATER ON SLOPING TERRAIN. DURING TOUCHDOWN, THE RIGHT WING DUG INTO THE SAND AS THE AIRCRAFT CRASH LANDED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL TANK WAS ABOUT 2/3 FULL, THE RIGHT AUX TANK CONTAINED ABOUT 5 GAL OF FUEL AND THE LEFT MAIN AND AUX TANKS WERE EMPTY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA82FA092
- Event ID
- 20020917X02409
- Case number
- MIA82FA092
- 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: 9847ea32d092c10f15052d241f6fdec02e1794c4b2ce952fdefe3abbb86890d8; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:08:04.732Z.