MIA00FA017 · Cessna T310R
Cessna T310R · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Key West International Airport (EYW) to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00FA017
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna T310R
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N4XZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key West International Airport (EYW), Key West, FLTo Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, 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 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
The pilot made radio contact with Air Traffic Control, and was issued an IFR clearance. The controller at the center observed the airplane in a turn and losing altitude. The controller radioed the pilot and asked if he needed assistance. The pilot answered 'standby.' Radar and radio contact was lost. About 4 hours later, a United States Coast Guard aircraft found debris in the water. Radar data showed that the flight was about to intersect the assigned airway, and was at an altitude of 5,800 feet. The flight started drifting left of the airway and climbed from 5,800 feet to 7,400 feet, in 2 minutes and 01 second. The airplane turned about 180 degrees to the left, and then descended 1,500 feet to an altitude of 5,900 feet, in 47 seconds. The flight continued to descend from 5,900 feet to 1,700 feet and reached that altitude in 2 minutes and 36 seconds. The last radar return was at 2209:40 and no altitude was recorded. In addition, the transcript of radio communication indicated that the pilot was receiving his IFR clearance about the same time, and he read back the clearance incorrectly. Due to the ocean conditions and high winds the search for the airplane and victims took several weeks. The airplane was not recovered from the ocean until November 15, 16, 1999. Examination of the recovered wreckage did not reveal any discrepancies. The pilot's personal logbook listing his flight hours was not recovered. Based on his last application for insurance, dated April 20, 1999, it was estimated that the pilot had about 1,207 hours of total flight time in all aircraft, and 36 hours in this make and model airplane, at the time of the application. In addition, at the time of the application the pilot listed 48 hours of night flight time. The weather for Key West, Florida, about 10 miles south of the crash site at 2153 was; wind 040 at 9 knots; visibility 10 sm, lowest ceiling 15,000 broken; temperature 79 degrees F; dew point 73 degrees F; altimeter 30.08 in Hg. The reported condition of the ocean, according to the United States Coast Guard station, Key West, Florida, about the time of the accident was; ocean swells (6 to 8 feet), and the winds were from the northeast at 15 to 20 knots.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane, which resulted in impact with rough water. A factor in this accident was a dark night, which resulted in no visual cues.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00FA017
- Event ID
- 20001212X20005
- Case number
- MIA00FA017
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-10-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 083f34848cb07ea2a5454c2d476688f7bf77827d2cc0d8bbfac6941f3d2fe777; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:40:04.980Z.