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MIA04CA094 · Piper PA-28-140

7 Jun 2004 · Lake Wales, FL, United States

Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: overrun during takeoff

From KX25 · Lake Wales, FL to Space Coast Regional Airport (KTIX)

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Event

NTSB case
MIA04CA094
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-28-140

Aircraft type
Piper PA-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
N41916
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From KX25 · Lake Wales, FLTo Space Coast Regional Airport (KTIX), Titusville, 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
Takeoff · roll/run
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
Overrun
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 › Aborted takeoff, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated he positioned the airplane at the beginning of runway 36 for a soft-field takeoff noting the turf runway was wet; however, he failed to extend the flaps to the 25 degree setting (2nd notch). He selected an abort point halfway down the runway, advanced power for takeoff and pulled back on the yoke. The takeoff roll was progressing but the airplane was not accelerating sufficiently for takeoff. He lowered the nose to gain additional speed for the takeoff. He noticed the airplane had passed the abort point and aborted the takeoff. At that point he judged the remaining runway inadequate for stopping and advanced the throttle to full power. The airplane became airborne but did not climb when it reached the steep down slope departure end of the runway just before the lake. The airplane contacted the lake coming to rest 15 feet into the lake in about 5 feet of water at an azimuth heading of 180 degrees. He and the passenger exited the airplane without assistance. The pilot stated there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions to the airplane or any of its systems prior to the accident.

Probable cause

The pilot's delay in aborting the takeoff resulting in an overrun of the runway and subsequent impact with water. A finding in the accident was the pilot's failure to extend the flaps to the second notch (25 degrees).

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA04CA094
Event ID
20040729X01100
Case number
MIA04CA094
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: a4e06541ba2f7fde5a1a5f6cb14535893fa6bc3205fcc80d01e49fac859d8c6f; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:22:34.566Z.