2010 Bimini Piper Pa-32 crash
Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six · Loss of Control due to the Pilot´s decision to fly into adverse weather
From Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS) to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10WA116
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- Unknown
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-32-300 Cherokee Six
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N4219R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS)To Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE)
- 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On the 17th of January, 2010, a Piper Pa-32 Cherokee aircraft carrying 3 people crashed near the Bimini Bay Resort in the Bahamas while flying to Fort Laudardale, Florida. All 3 occupants perished.
Accident
The aircraft departed Lynden Pindling International Airport at 14:49 Eastern Standard Time with 3 occupants operating under Visual Flight Rules. The flight time was estimated to be around 1 hour and 30 minutes for the direct flight between Nassau and Fort Lauderdale. The aircraft had been loaded with 37 gallons of Aviation gasoline giving it an estimated endurance of over 4 hours.
The aircraft climbed to its cruise altitude of 4500 feet and was expected to arrive at Fort Lauderdale at 16:19 EST. At 16:45, eyewitnesses reported that the aircraft had crashed near the Bimini Bay Resort in an area called "The Bluff". A joint search for the aircraft by the US Coast Guard and the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association (BARSA) then ensued, which located the aircraft shortly after the crash. All 3 occupants suffered fatal injuries.
Investigation and cause
Investigation & Conclusions
Due to the location of the crash in a shallow area of water and the underwater currents nearby the distribution pattern of the wreckage could not be determined. After the crash, the aircraft wreckage was transported to Fort Pierce in Florida, where it was examined by Piper technicians.
Conclusions
The final report states that both the Pilot and the Aircraft were properly certified for the flight, and that there were "no airplane system or powerplant anomalies that contributed to the cause of the accident". The report also states that there is no evidence that the pilot received a weather briefing either before or during the flight. The probable cause according to the report is a Loss of Control caused by the Pilot's decision to fly into clearly identified thunderstorm activity. Contributing factors to the crash include:
The Pilot's lack of training and certification to fly in non VFR conditions.
The Pilot's failure to recover from an unusual flight attitude.
The Pilot's poor decision making.
The Pilot's failure to land in a nearby airport to wait for the adverse weather, in which he was not certified to fly, to pass.
The Pilot's failure to assess the information concerning the weather activity in front of him. According to the Report: "There should have been ample information available from visual observations and other resources for the pilot to make a decision to delay the trip or make a landing in South Bimini to wait the passage of the cold front and or thunderstorms prior to continuing the flight".
Text from the Wikipedia article “2010 Bimini Piper Pa-32 crash” (revision 1363683868, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On January 17, 2010, at approximately 1545 eastern standard time, a Piper PA-32-300, N4219R, crashed approximately 500 yards northwest of the Bimini Bay Resort, North Bimini, Bahamas. The flight departed Lynden Pindling International Airport, Nassau, Bahamas at 1449, and was destined for Fort Lauderdale, Executive Airport, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The pilot and 2 passengers were killed. The personal flight was conducted in accordance with 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 and a visual flight rules flight plan was filed.
The accident is under the investigation of the Bahamas Civil Aviation Department, Air Accident Investigation and Prevention Unit. For further information contact the:
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
Wikipedia article: 2010 Bimini Piper Pa-32 crash
- Revision
- 1363683868 · 2026-07-11 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q138029967
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA10WA116
- Event ID
- 20100118X74705
- Case number
- ERA10WA116
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2010 Bimini Piper Pa-32 crash" (page 82193274, revision 1363683868); merged with NTSB case ERA10WA116 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ERA10WA116
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2010 Bimini Piper Pa-32 crash" and NTSB case ERA10WA116, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.