MIA06LA106 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Cyril E. King Airport (TIST) to Henry E. Rohlsen Airport (TISX)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA06LA106
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N5033Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cyril E. King Airport (TIST), St. ThomasTo Henry E. Rohlsen Airport (TISX), St. Croix
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 control 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
The instrument rated pilot departed VFR approximately 1 minute after the end of civil twilight, and approximately 9 minutes after departure, the pilot contacted San Juan CERAP and requested flight following to the destination airport. The controller advised the pilot to resume own navigation, and approximately 12 minutes after takeoff, the pilot advised the controller, "San Juan Approach ah, 5033Y ah I'm kinda lost ah I lost my bearing out here I need direct." The controller provided a heading of 140 degrees, which the pilot acknowledged; however, the recorded radar data indicates the airplane flew a south-southwesterly heading for approximately 2 minutes 21 seconds, and the flight descended to 1,600 feet. The remainder of the recorded radar data indicates that the heading and altitude changed numerous times, with the lowest recorded altitude being 300 feet. The controller then attempted to have the pilot proceed to the departure airport, but he did not acknowledge the transmission from the controller. The last recorded radar target indicated the airplane was at 2,000 feet, and was located at 17 degrees 57 minutes 41 seconds North latitude and 064 degrees 59 minutes 04 seconds West longitude. A search for the occupants and wreckage was performed by the U.S. Coast Guard; no debris or bodies was ever recovered. Level 1-4 showers had occurred over the Caribbean Sea between the departure and destination airports during the hour prior to departure, but there was no significant echoes along the airplane's flight route while airborne. Additionally, low-level clouds resulting from the previous precipitation was probably in the area.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain control of the airplane. A contributing factor in the accident was the spatial disorientation of the pilot, resulting in the in-flight loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA06LA106
- Event ID
- 20060519X00591
- Case number
- MIA06LA106
- 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: d1e4dacc52ee3c142312e4efb9d35ac1cec3b497521c71478e28d98fea1f73aa; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:21:17.342Z.