MIA95FA226 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-35
Corporate Flight Management Mitsubishi MU-2B-35 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Smyrna Airport (MQY) to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA226
- 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
- 0 · 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-35
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N309MA
- Operator
- Corporate Flight Management
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smyrna Airport (MQY)To Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), Louisville, KY
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Descent, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spiral, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS STATED HE OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE ON CLIMBOUT FROM RUNWAY 32. THE AIRPLANE STARTED A RIGHT TURN ESTIMATED AT ABOUT 30 TO 45 DEGREE ANGLE OF BANK. THE AIRPLANE STOPPED CLIMBING AND BEGAN DESCENDING. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT COLLIDED WITH A TREE LINE, WHILE IN A RIGHT BANK, AND THEN IT IMPACTED THE GROUND. WEATHER CONDITIONS AT THE TIME OF ACCIDENT WERE DESCRIBED BY THE WITNESS AS VERY DARK, WITH NO AMBIENT LIGHT OR VISIBLE HORIZON. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME, FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM, ENGINE ASSEMBLY, AND PROPELLER ASSEMBLY REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PRECRASH FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. THE AUTOPILOT WAS FOUND IN THE OFF POSITION, AND THE AUTOPILOT CIRCUIT BREAKERS WERE NOT TRIPPED. THE PILOT AND PASSENGER WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED AND HAD NO MEMORY OF THE FLIGHT. A RADIO TRANSCRIPT REVEALED THAT AFTER TAKING OFF, THE FLIGHT HAD MADE ONE RADIO TRANSMISSION TO REQUEST AN IFR CLEARANCE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN A PROPER CLIMB RATE AFTER TAKEOFF, AND HIS INADVERTENT ENTRY IN A DESCENDING SPIRAL, WHICH HE FAILED TO CORRECT. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, AND THE PILOT BECOMING SPATIALLY DISORIENTED DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB WHILE ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN AN IFR CLEARANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA226
- Event ID
- 20001207X04541
- Case number
- MIA95FA226
- 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: f4bed11bd504772577e7759043c0f7b8e81ef9a85125d76fe6d651c762650c7d; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:04:11.464Z.