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ERA10WA281 · Piper PA23 250

25 May 2010 · North Bimini, Bahamas

Piper PA23 250 · Accident

From South Bimini Airport (MYBS) to Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA10WA281
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
Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Piper PA23 250

Aircraft type
Piper PA23
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
N1526T
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From South Bimini Airport (MYBS), South BiminiTo Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN), New Providence
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
Not recorded
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
Not recorded
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

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

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

NTSB narrative

On May 25, 2010, at approximately 1830 eastern daylight time, a twin engine, Piper PA-23-250 airplane, N1526T, collided with power lines and crashed into the sea while flying at a low altitude shortly after takeoff from South Bimini Airport, South Bimini, Bahamas. The pilot and one passenger were killed and 2 persons on the ground received serious injuries. The airplane received substantial damage.

Eyewitness stated "the aircraft took off from South Bimini International Airport on runway 09 and made a left turn towards North Bimini. Eyewitnesses also stated that the aircraft was flying approximately 20 feet above the water when it made contact with two sets of power and phone lines, severing the wings and spraying fuel on tree tops along its path, before crashing into the sea leaving nothing visible on the surface except small pieces of debris. Witnesses stated a fireball erupted after initial impact with the power lines and trees. A second fireball and explosion was created after the second impact with trees. Two persons on the beach were in the path of the crash and received serious injuries from burns about the body.

The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Bahamian Government. Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:

Manager of Flight Standards, Bahamas P.O. Box AP 59244 Nassau, N.P. Bahamas Phone: (242) 377-3445/3448 Facsimile: (242) 377-6060

This report is for information purposes only, and contains only information released by or obtained for the Bahamian Government.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA10WA281
Event ID
20100526X92845
Case number
ERA10WA281
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: 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: 8dd8f3905c50ec7df5994c3a5d9ba054920e8385ee9e6b34d863674a3c97386e; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:49:46.170Z.