MIA05LA042 · Piper PA-28-181
Pan Am Flight Academy Piper PA-28-181 and Pan Am Flight Academy Piper PA-28R-201 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA05LA042
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-28-181
- 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
- N294PA
- Operator
- Pan Am Flight Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast International Airport (KFPR), Fort Pierce, FLTo not recorded
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-28R-201
- 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
- N283PA
- Operator
- Pan Am Flight Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast International Airport (KFPR), Fort Pierce, FLTo not recorded
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- 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 › Brakes(normal), not set
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Brakes(normal), not set
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Two Piper airplanes were waiting to takeoff on runway 9 when they collided. The student pilot in N294PA, a Piper PA-181, stated that he completed his engine run-up in the designated engine run-up area and then taxied to the holding position for runway 9, at A-4. He brought his airplane to a stop behind N283PA, a Piper PA-201. He stated that he usually sets the parking brake, selects 1,000 engine rpm, and switches off the landing light. He does not remember doing these steps. He does remember holding pressure on the toe-brakes. As he waited, he turned around to look for a bottle of water in the back seat. When he did, he took his feet off the toe-brakes, thinking the parking brake was set. A moment later, while still turned around, he heard a loud bang and felt his airplane shaking. He immediately looked in front of him and saw that his propeller had hit the tail of the 201. The flight instructor on the 201 stated that he and his student had been holding second in line for departure for a few minutes prior to the accident. They felt an impact and their airplane skidded forward a few feet. He opened the cabin door and looked back to see the 181 behind them with the engine stopped, and the propeller spinner buried in the empennage of his airplane.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot of the Piper 181to apply his parking brake when stopped awaiting departure and his failure to maintain a visual lookout resulting in his airplane rolling forward and colliding with the Piper 201 which was awaiting departure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA05LA042
- Event ID
- 20041208X01948
- Case number
- MIA05LA042
- 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: cfa260a4a59bd60ad3c0a72fca2590014f8010b6d8405ca05e3498d2f485b914; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:27:05.238Z.