MIA88FA201 · Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6
Executive Air Charter Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG) to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88FA201
- 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
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Smith Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600
- 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
- N90360
- Operator
- Executive Air Charter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG), San Juan, PRTo Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s); Utility pole
- 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
- Flight control system › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cataño, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AS THE ACFT WAS TAXIING FOR TAKEOFF, WITNESSES NOTED THE L REAR BAGGAGE DOOR WAS UNLOCKED & HANGING DOWN. A WARNING WAS RELAYED TO THE PLT VIA THE TWR, BUT BY THEN THE ACFT WAS AIRBORNE & THE PLT HAD RPRTD A CONTROL PRBLM. DRG LIFT-OFF, THEACFT PITCHED UP SHARPLY & ENTERED AN IMMEDIATE RGT BANK OF ABT 45 DEG. AS THE GEAR RETRACTED, THE BANK ANGLE DECREASED TO ABT 20 DEG. THE ACFT WAS RPRTD TO YAW SLIGHTLY FM SIDE TO SIDE & CIRCLE TO THE RGT WHILE CLIMBING TO ABT 1000'. A WITNESS (IN RADIO CTC) ASKED THE PLT ABT THE PROBLEM; THE PLT REPLIED THE CONTROLS (CTLS) WERE LOCKED TO ONE SIDE. ON ADVICE OF OTRS, THE PLT TRIED TO CTL THE ACFT WITH ENG POWER ADJUSTMENTS, BUT THE ACFT LOST ALT TO ABT 200' AGL. SUBSEQUENTLY, WHILE MNVRG, IT STRUCK A TREE, THEN HIT A UTILITY POLE & CRASHED. DRG IMPACT THE LOWER FUSELAGE, WHICH HOUSED THE FLT CTL LINKAGES, WAS BADLY DMGD. NO PREIMPACT MECH PRBLM WAS VERIFIED CONCERNING THE FLT CTLS, AUTOPLT OR TRIM. A PLT, WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY FLOWN THE ACFT WITH THE BAGGAGE DOOR OPEN, SAID HE EXPERIENCED NO ADVERSE CTL PRBLMS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88FA201
- Event ID
- 20001213X26018
- Case number
- MIA88FA201
- 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: 057acb0f37d652dfebb3534a6ba48ce60da4d1ad8f07a6056d8e0a6d418292a2; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:41:01.392Z.