MIA98FA007 · Beech 35-C33A
Beech 35-C33A and Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA98FA007
- 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 · Beech 35-C33A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N2050W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marion County Airport (MAO), Marion, SCTo Blue Ridge Airport (MTV), Martinsville, VA
- 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
- 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-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N3940W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 8A6 · Midland, NCTo Elizabeth City Regional Airport & Coast Guard Air Station (ECG), Elizabeth City, NC
- 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
- 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
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Altitude, inaccurate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of Beech 35, N2050W, phoned the Leesburg Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) to file a round trip IFR flight plan, but the briefing specialist inadvertently inputted the departure time as 1130 UTC instead of 1530 UTC (1130 local). The Beech flight departed VFR, and the pilot attempted to obtain an IFR clearance, but the controller advised him that there was no IFR flight plan in the system. The pilot advised the controller that he would proceed VFR. While en route, the Beech was on a north-northwesterly course, when it began to converge with Piper PA-32, N3940W, that was on a east-northeasterly course at about the same altitude. At about that time, the Beech pilot contacted an ATC facility and stated that his flight was level at 5,500 feet. He was given a discrete transponder code to squawk, and the pilot complied. The controller immediately advised the pilot that traffic was off to his left, but there was no acknowledgement. Both airplanes crashed into a rural area. An investigation revealed the nose landing gear of the Piper collided with the left wing tip of the Beech. Review of the FAR's revealed that while flying VFR between 180 and 359 degrees magnetic course, above 3,000 feet above ground level (agl), the pilot should fly at even thousand feet altitudes plus 500 feet. VFR flight between 0 and 179 degrees, above 3,000 feet agl, should be at odd thousands plus 500 feet.
Probable cause
failure of the pilots in both aircraft to see-and-avoid each other's airplane (inadequate visual lookout), and failure of the Beech pilot to operate his airplane at a correct Visual Flight Rules (VFR) cruising altitude for his route of flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA98FA007
- Event ID
- 20001208X09071
- Case number
- MIA98FA007
- 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: 00ac64cc33e7a4162cad76aeee561e14b2b8598a87995b42304e74579eb38ea2; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:47:58.115Z.