Skip to content

MIA91FA085

1991-02-23 · POMPANO BEACH, Florida, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport PMP

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO INCAPACITATION RESULTING FROM UNDERLYING SEVERE HEART DISEASE. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S NOT REPORTING THE HISTORY OF HYPERTENSION AND HEART PROBLEMS DURING HIS FAA MEDICAL EXAMINATION.

Factual narrative

DURING CROSSWIND TURN AFTER TAKEOFF A RADIO CALL WAS RECEIVED FROM THE PILOT IN WHICH THE PILOT IN A STRAINED VOICE CALLED PART OF THE REG. NUMBER AND THEN CEASED TRANSMITTING ABRUPTLY. WITNESSES SAW RUDDER GO FULL LEFT AT THIS TIME AND ENG. INCREASE AND DECREASE IN POWER. ACFT THEN ENTERED DESCENDING LEFT TURN WITH ACFT PITCH 45 DEGREES NOSE LOW. WINGS AND PITCH LEVELED AND ENGINE POWER INCREASED AS ACFT IMPACTED GROUND FLAT. POST CRASH EXAM. OF ACFT REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF FAILURE IN STRUCTURE, FLT. CONTROLS, AND ENG. POST MORTEM EXAM REVEALED PLT HAD SEVERE HEART DISEASE AND THE MEDICAL EXAMINER STATED PLT MOST LIKELY SUFFERED VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION WHICH WOULD ALLOW ONLY 10 SECONDS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER ATTACK. PLT HAD BEEN TREATED FOR HYPERTENSION AND ANGINA FOR SEVERAL YEARS AND DID NOT DECLARE THIS ON FAA MEDICAL APPLICATION. POST MORTEM TOX. TESTING INDICATED PLT WAS NOT TAKING HYPERTENSION MEDICATION PRESCRIBED BY DOCTOR. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_MIA91FA085.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 (loss of control). All research papers