ATL96FA017 · Cessna 402A
Cessna 402A · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Avon Park Executive Airport (AVO) to Exuma International Airport (MYEF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL96FA017
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 402A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N402RL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Avon Park Executive Airport (AVO)To Exuma International Airport (MYEF), EXEUMA, AO
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After takeoff at dawn on a foggy morning, the airplane collided with electrical transmission wires about one mile from the end of the runway, on an extended line about 50 degrees left of the extended runway centerline. The left wing tip fuel tank (left main) was partially severed from the airplane, breaching the tank. Additionally, the top of the vertical stabilizer and rudder were severed, and a portion of the windscreen was separated. A suggestion was made by the operator that the autopilot trim may have been improperly set, precipitating a nose pitch down upon engagement of the autopilot during the climb. The airplane continued to fly for about 20 minutes, then impacted in a steep right wing down attitude into a densely wooded area that was surrounded by open terrain. The ensuing fire precluded any determination of engine malfunction, systems' discrepancies, or wire strike damage to the left propeller. No determination of pilot incapacitation was possible because of the post impact fire. Based upon the ground witness statement, the left engine was probably inoperative following the wire strike. The impact attitude was inconsistent with a decreasing speed loss of control with the left engine inoperative. However, the flight control trim settings, left main fuel tank selected, and throttle quadrant settings all may have been indicative of pilot incapacitation that precluded proper emergency procedure response. Additionally, the airplane impacted into a densely wooded area surrounded by flatter terrain absent of tall obstacles.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain the proper climb rate and direction of flight following takeoff, resulting in a collision with obstacles. The reason for the loss of control and subsequent unusual attitude ground impact was not determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL96FA017
- Event ID
- 20001207X04942
- Case number
- ATL96FA017
- 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: 0c65dff425ac3b6653190b7fc0588e1d070df194d40a9fc2daa01421825d8eeb; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:30:21.533Z.