MIA98FA135 · Boeing A-75N1
Boeing A-75N1 and Boeing A-75N1 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA98FA135
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Boeing A-75N1
- Aircraft type
- Boeing A-75
- 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
- N806RB
- Operator
- Randall L. Drake · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kissimmee Gateway Airport (ISM)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 · Boeing A-75N1
- Aircraft type
- Boeing A-75
- 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
- N802RB
- Operator
- James E. Lovelace · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kissimmee Gateway Airport (ISM)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A flight of four airplanes were participating in an airshow. The flight leader of the demonstration team stated, they had just completed an arrowhead formation. The number 2 and number 3 airplanes moved into the diamond formation. The flight team completed the 5/8 loop portion of a 1/2 Cuban eight, set the 45-degree inverted downline, completed a 1/2 roll to the upright position, and was beginning the entry into a 'clover' loop, when the accident occurred. Witnesses and video from TV stations indicated that the flight leader, number 3, and number 4 airplanes started pulling up out of a dive to initiate the diamond 'clover' loop, when the number 2 airplane continued to descend and collided with the number 4 airplane.
Probable cause
The failure of the number 2 pilot to maintain visual contact and/or proper position/clearance from other aircraft
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA98FA135
- Event ID
- 20001211X09903
- Case number
- MIA98FA135
- 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: cc1259d49763b7882147d74075b4215d9341bdabf3a6837ac3a049005bc344ae; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:37:26.267Z.