MIA93FA160 · Piper PA-28
Knight Flight Piper PA-28 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) to PFN · Panama City, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93FA160
- 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
- 4 · 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
Piper PA-28
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N5096W
- Operator
- Knight Flight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, 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
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); Guy wire
- 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 altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FLIGHT FOLLOWING WAS CANCELLED AFTER A CREWMEMBER ADVISED THE ARTCC CONTROLLER THAT THE FLIGHT WAS DESCENDING FROM 2500 TO 1500 FEET. THE CONTROLLER ADVISED THE CREW THAT RADAR SERVICE WAS TERMINATED, AND THE CREW ACKNOWLEDGED. A WITNESS REPORTED LOW CLOUDS AND FOG NEAR THE ANTENNA. HE SAW THE AIRPLANE EMERGE FROM CLOUDS ON A NORTHWESTERLY HEADING. HE REPORTED THE AIRPLANE BANKED TO THE RIGHT AND THAT THE LEFT WING COLLIDED WITH A GUY WIRE AND SEPARATED. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED AND IMPACTED THE GROUND. THE TOP BEACON STROBE LIGHT OF THE ANTENNA WAS OPERATING BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME AND ENGINE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. A CURRENT SECTIONAL CHART WAS FOUND IN THE WRECKAGE THAT DEPICTED THE TOWER. REVIEW OF RECORDED RADAR DATA REVEALED THAT THE REPORTED ALTITUDE OF THE AIRPLANE CORRESPONDED WITH THE ENCODED ALTITUDE. NO RECORD WAS FOUND THAT THE PILOT(S) HAD OBTAINED A CURRENT WEATHER BRIEFING BEFORE DEPARTURE.
Probable cause
VFR FLIGHT BY THE PILOT(S) INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC) AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE (OR CLEARANCE) FROM THE TOWER. THE PROXIMITY OF THE TOWER/GUY WIRES AND WEATHER CONDITION WERE RELATED FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93FA160
- Event ID
- 20001211X12976
- Case number
- MIA93FA160
- 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: 37ef6fccfebf2ff60faa6102cf8ae630cba3931efe7f0a829e3ba2de49a9c76e; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:27:42.241Z.