MIA98FA172 · Aero Commander CALLAIR A-9 CALLAIR A-
Aero Commander CALLAIR A-9 CALLAIR A- · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From 5R2 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA98FA172
- 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
- 1 · 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
Aero Commander CALLAIR A-9 CALLAIR A-
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander CALLAIR A-9
- 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
- N7736V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5R2To 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
- 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, static; Stall/mush
- 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
- Object › Wire, static
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to witnesses, the flight had been conducted for the pilot to practice banner towing pickup. Poles about 20 feet in height, with a yellow nylon rope were stretched perpendicular to the airplane's flight path. The flight was seen making a pass over the pickup point and then return. The flight approached the pickup point from the north to the south and parallel to runway 17. The airplane was seen approaching the pickup site at an altitude of about 50 feet above the ground. About 100 feet north of the rope the airplane descended to an altitude of about 20 feet above the ground, and was seen striking the rope with the propeller. The rope wrapped around the propeller, shedding pieces of rope. Witnesses described the sound the rope made as being similar to 'a large weed whacker.' The airplane continued in a southerly direction and climbed to about 100 to 150 feet above the ground. The witnesses saw the airplane turn left (east), and then turn 'sharply' to the north. The airplane was last seen descending right wing and nose low into the tress. Several witnesses said that after the airplane struck the rope the engine rpm decreased, but the engine continued to run. Seventeen feet of yellow nylon rope was found wrapped around the propeller and engine flange.
Probable cause
an in-flight collision with a nylon rope (wire), resulting in a loss of engine power, an inadvertent stall, and subsequent impact with the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA98FA172
- Event ID
- 20001211X10149
- Case number
- MIA98FA172
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1998-06-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a01c635c27cd13398cef6a83f6e87a2847571c2f3f14825f0955c972d60b102d; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:34:01.281Z.