MIA06LA019 · Piper PA-28R-180
Piper PA-28R-180 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB) to Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA06LA019
- 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-28R-180
- 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
- N7453J
- Operator
- Dwayne Harris
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB), Sanford, FLTo Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB)
- 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 · 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 collided with trees, a house and then the ground during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. According to the pilot during the preflight inspection he noted the fuel level in the left tank to be nearly full, and the fuel level in the right tank to be slightly above the tab. He further stated that after several touch-and-go landings and one full stop landing at various airports, he proceeded back to Orlando Sanford International Airport (KSFB). During descent to KSFB, the engine went to idle and was operating rough, but did not lose power. The pilot recalls advancing the mixture control to full rich, verifying that auxiliary fuel pump was in the "on" position, and that the fuel selector valve was in the left tank position. After changing the fuel selector valve to the right tank position, which had no affect on engine performance, he trimmed the airplane for 80 knots and executed an emergency descent to landing on a small community road. The airplane impacted the roof of a house and trees during the landing. The fuel selector was found halfway between the right tank and one of the off detents. Fuel was found in the fuel strainer, fuel lines in the engine compartment, and fuel distributor valve. An operational test of the fuel selector valve in the "as found" position was performed by blowing air into the gascolator inlet; resistance was noted. The same test was then performed by blowing air into the gascolator inlet with the fuel selector positioned to each respective tank, no resistance was noted. No discrepancies with the engine were noted during the postaccident examination.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to undetermined reasons resulting in a forced landing in a residential area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA06LA019
- Event ID
- 20051118X01853
- Case number
- MIA06LA019
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2005-11-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7410e65a602584da181b2be653c6f79cb36dfc6eefcacb427d3e1b4f7d6a8e52; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:51:39.226Z.