M D Air Services Partenavia P-68C accident
Partenavia P-68C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN) to Duncan Town
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88FA260
- 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
- 6 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Partenavia P-68C
- Aircraft type
- Partenavia P-68
- 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
- N39272
- Operator
- M D Air Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN), NassauTo Duncan Town
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Wing, spar › Failure, total
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Duncan Town, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED IN THE OCEAN NR DUNCAN TOWN, BAHAMAS. THE WX ACCORDING TO WITNESSES WAS VMC. THE FLT HAD BEEN AIRBORNE ENROUTE FROM NASSAU FOR ABOUT 1 HR AND 20 MINUTES. WITNESSES ON A NEARBY BOAT SAID THE ACFT WAS FLYING IN A SLIGHT LEFT BANK WHEN THE LEFT WING SEPARATED FROM THE ACFT. THE ACFT ROLLED TO THE LEFT AND IMPACTED THE WATER. THE WRECKAGE SANK WHERE THE WATER WAS ABOUT 50 FT DEEP. THE LEFT OUTBOARD WING PANEL WAS RECOVERED AND EXAMINED AT THE NTSB LAB. ALL FRACTURES WERE FOUND TO BE FROM OVERSTRESS. NO PREEXISTING CRACKS WERE FOUND AND NO EVIDENCE OF FATIGUE OR FAILURE FROM CORROSION. THE WING TIP HAD CRUSHING DAMAGE AND A BLUE PAINT TRANSFER AS IF FROM A COLLISION. THE PARTLY BLUE VERTICAL STAB WAS DAMAGED FROM THE SEPARATED WING SECT STRIKING IT. THE WX REPORTED EN ROUTE WAS: BROKEN TO OVERCAST WITH RAIN SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. EXAM OF THE LATER RECOVERED INBOARD LEFT WING SECTION SHOWED SEPARATION OF THE OUTBOARD WING SECTION RESULTED FROM OVERSTRESS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88FA260
- Event ID
- 20001213X26621
- Case number
- MIA88FA260
- 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: 4e57687ade8de34bbc23332dc15c079a6320d7cc6a60057ac4747addbcdf7c46; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:10:42.596Z.