MIA97LA126 · Socata TB-21C
Socata TB-21C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From North Perry Airport (HWO) to PFN · Panama City, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97LA126
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Socata TB-21C
- Aircraft type
- Socata TB-21
- 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
- N55510
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Perry Airport (HWO), FLTo PFN · Panama City, FL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Flight into adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that while being vectored after takeoff, he observed adverse weather ahead and advised the controller. The controller had received a PIREP, which indicated only light precipitation. The flight continued on the vectored heading and encountered severe adverse weather, which resulted in a loss of aircraft control. The pilot regained control of the aircraft after obtaining visual reference with the ground, then the flight continued to the planned destination. The pilot was advised after the occurrence to contact the facility, which he did. He was advised by the area supervisor that '... he would take care of that, and I would have nothing to worry about.' During routine surveillance, an FAA inspector observed that the wing spars and vertical stabilizer of the aircraft had been damaged, and he notified the NTSB. The occurrence was first observed and reported to the NTSB 15 days after the date of the occurrence; therefore, voice and radar tapes from the ATC facility and from the FSS were not available for review.
Probable cause
continued flight by the pilot into adverse weather conditions, and the pilot allowing the aircraft to exceed its design stress limits. Weather associated with the thunderstorm was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97LA126
- Event ID
- 20001208X07608
- Case number
- MIA97LA126
- 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: be9921ceafb58b2b4291e68e995fb942670f877c7e25ba1e5a04895addadaebf; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:10:56.750Z.