Baron Aviation Services Cessna 208B accident
Cessna 208B · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to 81J · Destin, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92FA024
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Cessna 208B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- N951FE
- Operator
- Baron Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo 81J · Destin, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT CTCD APCH CTL & WAS GIVEN THE WX AS SKY PTLY OBSCD, CEILING 100 FT, VIS 1/16 MI WITH FOG, WIND CALM. THE PLT THEN REQUESTED A SURVEILLANCE RADAR APCH TO RWY 14, TO BE FLWD BY A SURVEILLANCE APCH TO RWY 32, IN THE EVENT OF A MISSED APCH FROM RWY 14. THE PUBLISHED APCH MINIMUMS WERE 1-1/4 MI VIS, CEILING 460 FT MSL (438 FT AGL). THE RADAR CTLR OBSERVED AN ALT READOUT THAT WAS BELOW THE PUBLISHED MINIMUMS & ADZD THE PLT TO EXECUTE A MISSED APCH. NO RESPONSE WAS RCVD FROM THE PLT. THE ACFT WAS FND FLOATING IN THE BAY APRX 2 MI FORM THE END OF THE RWY. ANOTHER PLT (BASED AT THE SAME FACILITY) STATED THAT THE TWO PLTS HAD, ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS, ATTEMPTED THE APCH AT TIMES WHEN THE WX WAS RPRTD TO BE LESS THAN THAT REQUIRED FOR THE APCH.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS FAILURE TO FOLLOW INSTRUMENT FLIGHT RULES PROCEDURES BY DISREGARDING THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE FOR THE APPROACH AND FAILING TO MAINTAIN CLEARANCE FROM THE TERRAIN. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S OVER CONFIDENCE IN HIS PERSONAL ABILITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92FA024
- Event ID
- 20001212X18409
- Case number
- ATL92FA024
- 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: baa39e8833d1c3074495bd2107128ed4fa5ae0f57963a0f850a5d6127882026f; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:01:48.292Z.