MIA04LA092 · North American T-28B
North American T-28B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39) to Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA04LA092
- 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
- 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
North American T-28B
- Aircraft type
- North American T-28
- 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
- N261FM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39), Wesley Chapel, FLTo Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39), Wesley Chapel, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was observed to depart from runway 32, and according to one witness, about 6 seconds after take off, "something small and rather dark fell from the plane." Another witness stated that a tarp of some kind came out from the plane." The airplane was then observed to roll left, and pitch down. The flight duration from takeoff to the time of the accident was estimated to be approximately 15-20 seconds. The airplane crashed into a wooded area. Examination of the wreckage, accident site, and departure end of the runway by an FAA inspector revealed several pieces of Plexiglas as well as the "Hinge, Engine side cowl forward" from the engine cowl assembly left hand side were found near the departure end of runway 32. Examination of the wreckage revealed the left hand side engine cowling was found farthest from the main wreckage, and a gash was noted in the vertical stabilizer from the leading edge aft to the main spar. Examination of the rear canopy revealed the Plexiglas was fractured with orange paint transfer near the fracture surface. The left hand side engine cowling was noted to be mostly orange in color, and was noted to have the "Hinge, Engine side cowl forward" and the aft upper section of cowling separated. No evidence of engine preimpact failure or malfunction was noted.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to verify security of the left engine cowling and its subsequent separation in-flight and collision with the vertical stabilizer resulting in the loss of aircraft control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA04LA092
- Event ID
- 20040609X00769
- Case number
- MIA04LA092
- 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: b226a19e6fab0434f93409083970f4551dbdaf27c31ead85f32b3f73131d27bd; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:27:23.364Z.