MIA90FA135 · Cessna T303
Cessna T303 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90FA135
- 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
- General aviation
- 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 T303
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 303
- 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
- N4973V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Daytona 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 · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Chafed
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Shorted
- Fire warning system, powerplant › False indication
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN NDB APCH IN INSTRUMENT CONDS WITH THE LANDING GEAR EXTENDED, THE FIRE WARNING LIGHT FOR THE RGT ENG ILLUMINATED. THE RGT ENG WAS SHUT DOWN & A MISSED APCH WAS INITIATED; HOWEVER, THE LANDING GEAR WOULD NOT RETRACT & THE ACFT WOULD NOT MAINTAIN ALT. AS IT DSCNDD INTO THE TOP OF AN OVERCAST AT AN ALT OF ABOUT 600', THE PLTS TRIED TO RESTART THE ENG, BUT TO NO AVAIL. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT DSCNDD BELOW THE CLOUDS AT AN ALT OF ABOUT 150' TO 170'. AS THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) LANDED THE ACFT IN AN OPEN FIELD, THE NOSE GEAR ENCOUNTERED SOFT DIRT & THE ACFT NOSED OVER. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT AN ELECTRICAL POWER JUMPER WIRE BETWEEN 2 BUS BARS HAD BECOME CHAFED & SHORTED. THE LEFT & RGT ISOLATION CIRCUIT BREAKERS & THE BUSS TIE CIRCUIT BREAKER WERE FOUND IN THE TRIPPED (OPEN) POSITION. THIS RESULTED IN A FALSE FIRE WARNING LIGHT & PREVENTED THE LANDING GEAR FROM BEING RETRACTED.
Probable cause
THE CHAFED AND SHORTED ELECTRICAL WIRING BETWEEN BUS BARS, WHICH CAUSED A PARTIAL ELECTRICAL FAILURE, RESULTED IN A FALSE FIRE WARNING INDICATION, AND PREVENTED THE RESTART OF THE RIGHT ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90FA135
- Event ID
- 20001212X23208
- Case number
- MIA90FA135
- 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: dfeae8a9013afa098a24789e858868956e762eccc191ff7426509d0edbb31a24; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:52:37.049Z.