FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

ATL00FA091 · Piper PA-28-161

11 Sept 2000 · FT. PIERCE, FL, United States

Piper PA-28-161 and Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: midair collision on approach

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
ATL00FA091
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
2 · 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 · Piper PA-28-161

Aircraft type
Piper PA-28
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
N9208N
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB), Vero Beach, FLTo 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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Destroyed

Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-23-250

Aircraft type
Piper PA-23
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
N54325
Operator
Roger M. Boromei · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Okeechobee County Airport (OBE), Okeechobee, FLTo Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR)
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Crew/group briefing, disregarded
  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Visual separation, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

A Cherokee was in the traffic pattern executing touch and go landing, and the Aztec was inbound to the airport. The Cherokee and the Aztec collided in-flight in controlled airspace, while under the control of the local controller. There was a shift change at the control tower a few minutes prior to the midair collision. The relieving local controller declined a formal briefing of the location of traffic because he was busy.

Probable cause

Failure of local controller to provide adequate spacing between two airplanes that resulted in a midair collision. Contributing Factors: the local controller declined receiving a formal brief before relieving the controller on duty. The controller who was relieved failed to ensure proper briefing of local traffic.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL00FA091
Event ID
20001212X21903
Case number
ATL00FA091
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: 22df2ff597b2fac04d4f75fcc46264560a013915922df98b13b2ab854fd2c10d; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:52:19.339Z.