MIA08LA159 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: landing gear not configured
From North Central State Airport (SFZ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08LA159
- 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-200
- 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
- N56064
- Operator
- Michael Robinson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Central State Airport (SFZ), Pawtucket, RITo 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- Defining eventThe 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
- Landing gear not configured
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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 that he was in cruise flight at 3,000 feet when he noted an airframe vibration. When he pushed the throttle full forward, the manifold pressure and engine rpm increased, and the vibration increased. He then leaned the mixture and the vibration seemed to decrease. The airplane would not climb, and started a descent. The pilot selected the nearest airport and proceeded to the airport to make a precautionary landing. The pilot initiated a visual approach to the 2,129-foot long runway. He realized the airplane was high and fast, and he then completed a go-around. He remained in closed traffic and was looking for available forced landing areas. The pilot turned on final approach again, but then he decided to abort the approach and land gear-up in a sod field. Examination of the engine assembly revealed the No. 1 cylinder exhaust valve pushrod would only move .125 inch. The cylinder exhibited heavy carbon build up on the upper and lower spark plugs. No other anomalies were noted.
Probable cause
The pilot's misjudgment of speed and altitude while maneuvering to land during an emergency descent. Contributing to the accident was the partial loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08LA159
- Event ID
- 20080808X01187
- Case number
- MIA08LA159
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 69efe46fbe6c3f593454f29850d3db8a4b31a38479e673383e13e701c08d4b1a; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:00:46.057Z.