As a single-engine Cessna began a tragic descent on May 14 near the Haulover Inlet Bridge, pilot Narciso Torres told his air traffic controller peers in Miami Approach Control: “Mayday-Mayday-Mayday ... 54Z, uh, lost engine power. ... I don’t know where I am going to put this down, but I’m going down right here.”
The plane dropped another 700 feet. Miami Approach told Torres the wind speed (3 knots), direction (180 degrees) and asked about his fuel and human payload. Torres said, “There’s three souls, there’s, um, a road right here ... a little bridge, I’m going to make that, 54Z.”
That’s from the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the plane crash and fire that killed Torres, seriously injured two passengers and injured five people on the ground as the plane hit two cars on the Haulover bridge. The bridge is immediately north of Bal Harbour.
As is common with NTSB preliminary crash reports, this is a recounting of events and a statement of what investigators saw when examining the plane or car. No conclusions were drawn.
An engine problem over Miami
At 11:45 a.m. May 14, about 66 minutes before the crash of the Cessna 172H aircraft first declared airworthy in 1966, Torres flew from Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport to Pembroke Pines’ North Perry Airport and pumped 11.2 gallons of aviation fuel into the airplane himself. One of the passengers told the NTSB that he saw Torres using a checklist before takeoff.
Despite the plane’s age, the NTSB noted, all inspections were up to date, and there was no “evidence of fuel contamination or any anomalies with the dispensing system” at North Perry.
The passengers got aboard and Torres took off from North Perry at 12:38 p.m. for Key West. He guided the plane east to the shoreline for some sightseeing.
“About 15 to 20 minutes later, the pilot called ‘the tower’ and said he had an engine problem and had to return,” the report says. “The passenger did not hear anything wrong with the engine and, though the pilot seemed concerned, he was not panicked.”
The report says preliminary air traffic control data from the FAA says Torres asked Miami Approach for flight following, but used the call sign “N5545Z,” the sign for a single-engine Piper owned by a Dubin, Ohio, man, instead of the plane’s actual “N8845Z.” Still, Miami Approach picked up the Cessna on radar and told Torres to stay under 2,000 feet.
The plane was heading south along the shore at about 1,200 feet when Torres said, “Miami Approach ... Mayday-Mayday-Mayday ... 54Z, uh, lost engine power. ... I don’t know where I am going to put this down, but I’m going down right here.”
The report said Torres turned the plane north as it continued to drop. At 500 feet, Miami Approach gave him the wind speed and direction and asked Torres if he had time to provide the number of people on board and his fuel. Torres replied, ““There’s three souls, there’s, um, a road right here ... a little bridge, I’m going to make that, 54Z.”
The report said, “This was the last transmission from the pilot.”
The NTSB said photos of the plane as it descended toward the bridge showed “the propeller was windmilling, the wing flaps were up and there was no sign of smoke or fire.”
After landing on the bridge with its left main landing gear tire and right main landing gear tire on either side of the median, the airplane hit one vehicle on the northbound side, crossed the median fully and hit another southbound vehicle before a “nose over,” a turning over with the propeller nose as the pivot.
The report said the airplane went 318 feet or 106 yards after hitting the first vehicle to when it stopped.
“After the airplane came to rest, a post-crash fire ensued, which consumed a majority of the cabin and the fuselage.”
The NTSB report says there was “no evidence of an in-flight fire.” The spark plugs were a normal color except for three that got oil on them after the airplane flipped. The fuel strainer bowl didn’t have any corrosion. The carburetor accelerator pump worked normally and the inlet screen wasn’t dirty. The carburetor bowl had “a small amount of visible corrosion.”
