MIA95FA224 · Aerospatiale TB-9
Aerospatiale TB-9 and Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA224
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Aerospatiale TB-9
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale TB-9
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N117ER
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Daytona Beach, FLTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N2351A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 34JTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Flight instructor(on ground) › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Aerospatiale TB-9, N117ER, was observed on short final approach, and the Piper PA-38, N2351A, had turned from base to final just above and behind the TB-9. Two pilots on the ground transmitted warnings to the aircraft but no action was taken. The aircraft collided; the TB-9 sustained stabilator damage and nosed down and crashed. The Piper landed without further incident. Pilots on the ground reported seeing the Piper performing takeoffs and landings, and heard the pilot making position reports. The pilots only observed the TB-9 while on short final approach, and did not recall hearing any position reports from the pilots. They stated there were many aircraft with similar call signs and they might have missed the calls. The operator of the TB-9 teaches their pilots to fly a 1.6 nm final approach at a 3 degree descent angle while making visual approaches. Other pilots stated that this practice conflicts with pilots who fly normal close in approaches with a 3/4 to 1 nm final approach leg. The aircraft flying the long final are at a lower altitude where a pilot making a normal visual approach would not expect to see conflicting traffic.
Probable cause
the failure of the pilots of both aircraft to see and avoid each other.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA224
- Event ID
- 20001207X04540
- Case number
- MIA95FA224
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ca0a667c9fc4833b8a193b7a729af7f25e8d65e802be71245d2edda5799cc698; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:37:08.077Z.