- Date
- September 30, 1987, 08:51 local (12:51 UTC)
- Place
- 50 Nw San Juan, PR
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N4100SAero Commander 720
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 16, 1989
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 31974
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
Fifteen minutes after a northwest departure from san juan international arpt the plt reported that the flt was returning to land after securing the rt eng due to reported problems. Unable to maintain altitude the acft was ditched aprx 50 miles northwest of the arpt. Density altitude was computed to be 1900 ft at the arpt 1 minute after the ditching. According to the acft operating manual, at the designed gross weight with a properly secured engine at the above computed density altitude, the single engine rate of climb would be 212 feet per minute. The acft & logbooks have not been recovered therefore the cause of the reported eng failure & maintenance information could not be determined & obtained respectively.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4100S
- Reported as
- Aero Commander 720
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 720-660-7
- Engine
- Lycoming GSO-480-B1A6, 340 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Carlo Claro
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- 5IG · San Juan, PR
- Destination
- FLL · Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- Flight plan
- VFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 56
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land, Multi-engine sea, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 4,080 total · 43 in this make and model · 24 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 130° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 75 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- SJU, 50 nm away