MIA82DA171 · Engineering & Research 415-C
Engineering & Research 415-C · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE) to St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA82DA171
- 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
Engineering & Research 415-C
- Aircraft type
- Engineering Research 415
- 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
- N99987
- Operator
- Kenneth A. Kessler · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE), Clearwater, FLTo St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE), Clearwater, 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Clearwater, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT AFTER HE TOOK OFF ON RUNWAY 35R, HE TURNED OUT TO THE NORTHEAST. HE REPORTED THAT WHEN HE REACHED 900 FT, THE ENGINE STALLED AND RESTARTED. HE NOTIFIED THE TOWER AND WAS CLEARED TO LAND ON RUNWAY 09. A WITNESS REPORTED OBSERVING THE AIRCRAFT ON A VERY HIGH FINAL APPROACH AND STATED THE PLANE FLOATED IN GROUND EFFECT WHILE THE PILOT WAS TRYING TO LAND. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS ABOUT 500 FT AT THE (APPROACH) END OF THE 5165 FT RUNWAY WHEN HE ENCOUNTERED AT TAIL WIND. HE REPORTED THAT HE DID NOT WISH TO ATTEMPT A GO-AROUND BECAUSE OF THE PRIOR ENGINE MALFUNCTION. ABOUT 300 FT FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY, THE AIRCRAFT LANDED HARD AND WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE 1447 EDT WEATHER OBSERVATION SHOWED THAT THE WIND WAS FROM 070 DEG AT 8 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA82DA171
- Event ID
- 20020917X03774
- Case number
- MIA82DA171
- 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: b438c90abc66f8c4e3b1e4c4a577ec38a99baf3e4d9e63cb66971bf71b2674e0; retrieved 2026-09-24T01:31:37.281Z.