MIA90FA085 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Piper PA-12 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA085
- 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
- 3 · 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 · Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N48977
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 downwind
- 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-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N7510H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- En route · descent
- 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) › Atc clearance, improper
- Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Traffic advisory, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
N7510H HAD CONTACTED TOWER SE OF ARPT ON RADIO FREQ USED FOR NORTH RUNWAY. FLT WAS CLEARED TO DESCEND THRU PATTERNS FOR RUNWAYS 9R AND 9L TO 500 FT FOR BANNER DROP. N48977 TOOK OFF ON 9R FOR TOUCH & GO, AND WAS USING RADIO FREQ FOR SOUTH RUNWAY. CONTROLLER GAVE N7510H TRAFFIC AS CESSNAS ON THE DOWNWIND FOR 9R. TWO OTHER CESSNAS WERE ON DWNWIND; N48977 HAD NOT TURNED DOWNWIND YET. PLT OF N7510H ACKNOWLEDGED TRAFFIC IN SIGHT. CONTROLLER GAVE CESSNAS ON DWNWIND TRAFFIC AS BANNER TOWERS INBND FROM SOUTH. CONTROLLER WAS WORKING A COMBINED POSITION OF TWO RUNWAYS AND TWO RADIO FREQ. THERE WERE SEVERAL ACFT IN EACH PATTERN. SHE STATED SHE DID NOT HAVE TIME TO GIVE SPECIFIC TRAFFIC INSTRUCTIONS TO N7510H AND N48977 DUE TO WORKLOAD. PLT IN CESSNA AHEAD OF N48977 STATED AS HE TURNED DWNWIND FOR 9R THE SUNGLARE REDUCED VISIBILITY. N7510H AND N48977 COLLIDED AT A 90 DEG ANGLE SHORTLY AFTER N48977 TURNED DOWNWIND FOR RUNWAY 9R.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE LOCAL CONTROLLER TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE TRAFFIC ADVISORIES TO N7510H, THE LOCAL CONTROLLER'S IMPROPER CLEARANCE TO N7510H TO DESCEND THROUGH THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, AND THE FAILURE OF THE PILOTS OF BOTH AIRCRAFT TO SEE AND AVOID EACH OTHER. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LOCAL CONTROLLER'S WORKLOAD AND THE EFFECT OF SUNGLARE ON THE PILOT OF N48977.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA085
- Event ID
- 20001212X22757
- Case number
- MIA90FA085
- 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: 40640263c9e4d63d5d8b56b7af4a673bb6b15aa0ad9a7c4336446e0492b7d8af; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:54:59.138Z.