Skip to content

MIA86FA239

1986-08-23 · VERO BEACH, Florida, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport X52

Current FAA registration · N23266

Make / Model
PIPER J3C-65
Year of manufacture
1939 · 47 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR A&C65 SERIES (65 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19640617
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A21337

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

FLIGHT EXPERIENCED LOSS OF ENGINE POWER WHILE CLIMBING THROUGH 200 FEET SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF. WHILE ATTEMPTING TO RETURN TO THE RUNWAY THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AND THE GROUND COMING TO REST ADJACENT TO THE RUNWAY. EXAMINATION OF AIRCRAFT RECORDS REVEALED THE WRONG MODEL CARBURETOR FOR THE ENGINE WAS INSTALLED AND THAT THE ENGINE HAD BEEN OPERATING WITH A RICH MIXTURE DUE TO A CARBURETOR PROBLEM. WORK HAD BEEN PERFORMED ON THE CARBURETOR TO CORRECT THE RICH MIXTURE. EXAMINATION OF THE CARBURETOR AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED THE MIXTURE CONTROL ARM WAS WIRED AT THE 40 TO 50 PERCENT OF TRAVEL FROM LEAN TO RICH AND THAT THE FUEL SHUTOFF NEEDLE VALVE WAS WORN EXCESSIVELY CAUSING THE NEEDLE VALVE TO NOT SEAT ON OCCASION. NO OTHER EVIDENCE OF ENGINE MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1986_MIA86FA239.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers