MIA92LA086 · Cessna 172N
Flight Express Cessna 172N and Mooney M20E · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92LA086
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N738YY
- Operator
- Flight Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Mooney M20E
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M20
- 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
- N6988V
- Operator
- Paul R. Palmeri · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Cedar Key, 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 · climb to 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Flight advisories, not issued
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT OF N738YY REPT TO LOCAL CONTROLLER HE WAS NORTHBOUND ON NORTH LOOP IN ACCORDANCE WITH LETTER OF AGREEMENT FOR SKYWATCH FLTS. THIS WAS ONLY COMM WITH FLT PRIOR TO COLLISION. ANOTHER SKYWATCH FLT WAS SOUTHBOUND. TWO MIN LATER N6988V REPT READY FOR TAKEOFF RWY 7. PLT OF N6988V HAD NOT HEARD NORTHBOUND SKYWATCH REPT IN. N6988V WAS CLR TAKEOFF FOR NORTHWEST DEPT. AFTER TAKEOFF WHILE NW BOUND CONTROLLER CALLED TRAFFIC TO N6988V AS SKYWATCH FLT TO RT HEADING SOUTHBOUND. CONTROLLER DID NOT ADVISE OF NORTHBOUND SKYWATCH. THE PLT OF N6988V REPT SOUTHBOUND SKYWATCH IN SIGHT. ONE MINUTE LATER N6988V AND N738YY (THE NORTHBOUND SKYWATCH) COLLIDED. BOTH FLTS RETURNED TO ARPT AND LANDED UNEVENTFUL. N738YY RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE, N6988V RECEIVED MINOR DAMAGE.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS IN COMMAND OF BOTH AIRCRAFT FAILURE TO MAINTAIN VIGILANCE AND SEE AND AVOID EACH OTHER RESULTING IN A MIDAIR COLLISION. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LOCAL CONTROLLERS FAILURE TO ISSUE TRAFFIC ADVISORIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92LA086
- Event ID
- 20001211X14158
- Case number
- MIA92LA086
- 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: 10bf640cefe46a32587a46875b7a38e8e89a2de0f89c8f165fef7fc0ac452a6f; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:22:03.813Z.