MIA90FA067 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 and American AA-1A · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA067
- 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
- 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
- N473FT
- Operator
- FL Institute of Technology
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PBI · Palm Beach, FLTo X-59 · VALKARIA, 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
- 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 · American AA-1A
- Aircraft type
- American AA-1
- 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
- N9486L
- Operator
- Cooper, Roger L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From X26To X26
- 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
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A MIDAIR COLLISION OCCURRED BETWEEN A PIPER PA-28, N473FT, & AN AMERICAN AA-1A, N9486L, AS THE 2 ACFT WERE ON FINAL APCH TO LAND ON RWY 13 AT AN UNCTLD ARPT. BOTH ACFT THEN CRASHED TO THE GROUND. THE PLT OF THE AA-1A SURVIVED THE ACDNT, BUT DUE TO INJURIES, HE COULD NOT RECALL DETAILS OF THE OCCURRENCE. THE AA-1A WAS INITIALLY IN LEFT TRAFFIC BEHIND THE PA-28. A CFI (IN TRAFFIC AHEAD OF BOTH ACFT) HEARD THE PA-28 PLT RPRT ON A 1-3/4 MI FINAL APCH. HE THEN HEARD THE AA-1A PLT RPRT ON BASE LEG. THEREAFTER, THE CFI HEARD THE AA-1A PLT RPRT TURNING ON A SHORT FINAL APCH & BECAME AWARE OF A POTENTIAL TRAFFIC CONFLICT. THE CFI THEN SAW THE AA-1A IN A LEFT TURN ON THE RGT SIDE OF THE FINAL APCH PATH, AS IF THE PLT HAD OVERSHOT THE TURN TO FINAL. ALSO, HE SAW THE PA-28 ON FINAL APCH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE 2 ACFT CONVERGED & COLLIDED. DURING IMPACT, THE PROP & NOSEWHEEL OF THE AA-1A HIT THE EMPENNAGE OF THE PA-28.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE AA-1A PILOT TO SEE-AND-AVOID THE PIPER PA-28 WHICH HAD ENTERED TRAFFIC FIRST. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE PA-28 PILOT TO SEE THE AMERICAN AA-1A, WHEN THE AA-1A WAS ON A BASE LEG AND THE PA-28 WAS FURTHER OUT ON FINAL APPROACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA067
- Event ID
- 20001212X22604
- Case number
- MIA90FA067
- 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: 9a4dd769ffb6c3ca847a9f1b2f242b7c405d0b4275fcac98ae61db2079fd2cb7; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:59:08.593Z.