Piper PA-28R accident near Marathon, Florida, August 10, 2015

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

According to the airplane owner, the noninstrument-rated pilot had rented the airplane in Palm Beach, Florida, 1 day before the accident and was not scheduled to return the airplane until the day after the accident. The rental agreement prohibited night flight to or from the Florida Keys. However, about 4 hours after sunset on the night of the accident, the pilot departed an airport on the Florida Keys. Airport security video recorded the airplane becoming airborne, climbing, and beginning to turn right. A witness reported seeing the airplane descending into the water with the engines running. The flight was conducted on a dark, moonless night, and in a sparsely populated area of Florida near the water. No visible horizon could be seen on the video. Based on the dark night conditions, the lack of visual reference at the time of the accident, the pilot's low overall flight time, and the pilot's lack of an instrument rating, it is likely that he became spatially disoriented, which led to the subsequent descent into water. Examination of the wreckage revealed a right wing low attitude at the time of the impact, which was consistent with the pilot maintaining the right turn seen in the security video recordings. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or abnormalities that would have precluded normal operation.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.

Other NTSB records under N54380 the same tail number, which may have belonged to a different aircraft at the time