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Atlas / NTSB / MIA05CA163

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MIA05CA163

2005-09-25 Opa Locka, Florida, United States Airport · KOPF None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed, during a banner pick up, resulting in a stall/mush and collision with terrain during the uncontrolled descent.

Factual narrative

This report is based on information received by the NTSB. Additional details may be found in the NTSB's public docket for this case. For further information, please contact the NTSB Office of Public Inquiries. The pilot stated he departed from the North Perry Airport and proceeded toward the Opa Locka Airport to pick up his first banner of the day. He noted thunderstorms in the area but their banner operations were still ongoing. Two of his coworkers picked up their banner before him. He deployed the hook and flew the pattern for the pick up. Upon approaching the poles, he applied full engine power and picked up the rope. He pulled up and upon the ground crew signaling that the banner is about to be lifted, he proceeded to lower the nose of the airplane, which was about 175 feet above the ground. At that point, instead of the usual leveling off, the airplane started to sink and upon picking up the banner, the sink rate accelerated rapidly. He waited about 2 seconds for things to normalize while ensuring all engine levers were in the full power position. The sink rate kept the same. By now he was sure that a hard landing was imminent so he released the banner and landed straight ahead. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2005_MIA05CA163.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, thunderstorm). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗