GAA16CA454 · Piper PA 34 200T
Eli Air Center Piper PA 34 200T and Cessna 500 CITATION · Accident: ground collision while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA454
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA 34 200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N8166U
- Operator
- Eli Air Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rock Sound International Airport (MYER), Rock SoundTo Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1980)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- Ground collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 500 CITATION
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 500
- 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
- N70SW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN), NassauTo Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1974)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) not operating
- 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
- Ground collision
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 of the parked airplane reported that he and his co-pilot had just re-entered the airplane and were having a conversation when he felt the airplane shake and heard a loud noise. He further reported that he looked out of the right window and saw an aircraft with its propeller hitting the right wing. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing.
The pilot of the other airplane reported that, after engine start and before taxi for takeoff, he was looking at his navigation communications and did not notice the airplane rolling forward. The airplane rolled forward and collided with the airplane in front of it. The pilot further reported that he was unaware of the airplane's forward movement and that the thought that the hand brake was fully engaged. The airplane sustained minor damage.
Neither pilot reported any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplanes that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to ensure that the brake was fully engaged and his subsequent failure to notice that his airplane was rolling forward, which resulted in it hitting another airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA454
- Event ID
- 20160829X53416
- Case number
- GAA16CA454
- 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: c466b35cef81f71dbc52fec710ee70007da523455e34526758f7ead598f67a58; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:25:37.223Z.