ERA16FA186 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Miami Executive Airport (TMB) to Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport (X51)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA16FA186
- 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 PA28 140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N7031R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, FLTo Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport (X51), Homestead, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 50 years (built 1966)
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot and the passenger, a friend who was previously a student pilot but never completed his training, were making their first flight together. The pilot, who sustained serious injuries, did not recall the accident. The passenger reported that the pilot took off from the departure airport and then transferred the controls to him and let him fly for a while. They flew to another airport, and the pilot made one touch-and-go landing on runway 36. During departure, the pilot again transferred control to the passenger and stated, "you make the next landing and I will watch you."
The passenger reported that he was trying to fly the airplane straight to the runway but drifting left due to a quartering tailwind, which was reported as 14 knots, gusting to 22 knots. The passenger tried to correct the flight path but was unable to align the airplane with the runway centerline. He did not remember if the pilot tried to help or not at any point before the airplane impacted the ground.
The airplane came to rest near midfield and about 340 ft left of the runway edge. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot's (left front seat's) shoulder harness was torn in half at its midpoint. The distal 24 inches (the portion that did not normally retract into the inertia reel) of the webbing showed significant discoloration, fading, and stiffness. A significant section of abrasive wear was noted on the edges of the webbing about 15 to 21 inches from the distal end fitting; the shoulder harness separated in this worn section. The passenger's (right front seat's) shoulder harness was also discolored, faded, and stiff.
The manufacturer's maintenance manual for the airplane stated that an inspection of the seat belts is required during the annual and/or 100-hour inspection. The manual indicated that the belts are to be replaced if deteriorated or worn. Review of the airplane's maintenance logbooks found no records indicating that the seat belts were ever inspected or replaced. If the pilot's shoulder harness had been replaced, it would likely have secured him in his seat and minimized the severity of the injuries that he incurred.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to allow the passenger to attempt a landing, which resulted in a loss of control during landing with a quartering tailwind. Contributing to the severity of the pilot's injuries was the separation of the deteriorated shoulder harness.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA16FA186
- Event ID
- 20160517X74113
- Case number
- ERA16FA186
- 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. 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: 593669cd8823606d1b64717938e0335fa427346941175e990a6eb3e740bf96ab; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:24:06.937Z.