MIA92LA147 · Maule MX-7-180
Maule MX-7-180 · Accident: near collision between aircraft en route
From Peter O Knight Airport (TPF) to Witham Field (SUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92LA147
- 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
Maule MX-7-180
- Aircraft type
- Maule MX-7
- 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
- N148DP
- Operator
- Scruggs, Debra C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Peter O Knight Airport (TPF), Tampa, FLTo Witham Field (SUA), Stuart, 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 · 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Notams, not attained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF N148DP FILED A VFR FLIGHT PLAN, BUT DID NOT OBTAIN NOTAM INFORMATION FOR HIS ROUTE OF FLIGHT. EN ROUTE HE REPORTED TO THE AIR FORCE AVON PARK OPERATIONS THAT HE INTENDED TO PASS TO THE SOUTH OF THE RESTRICTED AREA AT AVON PARK. WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT AT 1,400 FEET OVER INSTRUMENT ROUTE 34 (IR 34), N148DP ENCOUNTERED A FLIGHT OF FOUR F16 AIRCRAFT FLYING AT 1,500 FEET AT 500 KNOTS. THE F16 AIRCRAFT WERE IN WIDE FORMATION AND NONE OF THE AIRCRAFT HAD RADAR CONTACT WITH N148DP. THE LEAD AIRCRAFT PERFORMED A 6 'G' PULL UP TO AVOID COLLISION WITH N148DP. N148DP ENCOUNTERED WAKE TURBULENCE FROM THE F16 AND SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE STRUCTURE. THE PILOT OF N148DP CONTINUED TO THE DESTINATION AND LANDED UNEVENTFULLY. THE F16 FLIGHT CONTINUED THE MISSION AND RETURNED TO BASE UNEVENTFULLY. THE IR 34 ROUTE WAS ON A NOTICE TO AIRMAN (NOTAM) AS BEING ACTIVE AT THE TIME OF THE OCCURRENCE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND OF N148DP TO OBTAIN NOTAM INFORMATION CONCERNING MILITARY ROUTES ALONG HIS ROUTE OF FLIGHT, RESULTING IN HIS ENCOUNTER WITH A FLIGHT OF F16 AIRCRAFT WHO WERE OPERATING ON A MILITARY ROUTE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92LA147
- Event ID
- 20001211X15227
- Case number
- MIA92LA147
- 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: d26cd27f33e74377ea762bc78a83add77a6d434790c164a1ec821e2c4f764c91; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:13:00.641Z.