Air Sunshine Cessna 402C accident
Cessna 402C · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to Leonard M. Thompson International Airport (MYAM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99FA168
- 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
- 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 402C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N440AB
- Operator
- Air Sunshine
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)To Leonard M. Thompson International Airport (MYAM), Marsh Harbour
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Aileron, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, improper
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During taxi and takeoff on runway 9 right, the pilot and passengers stated the windows of the aircraft were fogged over due to rain. The passengers stated they could not see out the front windows. The pilot stated he could see out the front windows. The passengers also stated the pilot was holding the control wheel full to the right during takeoff. The winds were reported to be from 030 at 10 knots. During takeoff roll the aircraft drifted to the left and went off the runway. The aircraft then crossed over a taxiway and collided with a taxiway identifier sign. The nose gear collapsed and separated. The aircraft then impacted a ditch. The main landing gear collapsed and separated, and the aircraft spun around 90 degrees to the left and came to rest about 100 feet north of the runway. No windshear alerts were recorded during the time of taxi and takeoff of the flight and no standing water was observed on the runway by airport operations personnel shortly after the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision takeoff with condensation on the cockpit windows which restricted visibility, his improper use of aileron control, improper compensation for winds during takeoff, and his failure to maintain directional control during takeoff, resulting in the aircraft running off the left side of the runway, colliding with a taxiway sign and ditch, and collapsing the landing gear.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99FA168
- Event ID
- 20001212X19049
- Case number
- MIA99FA168
- 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: 86dde2d223d3a88af60dbcd1b45af5ae4b8dd50cd978b7bcddd615fd5f8c6dde; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:56:11.014Z.