BFO89LA023 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-20F
Mitsubishi MU-2B-20F · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO89LA023
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-20F
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N701DM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), Carlsbad, CATo 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 · 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Incapacitation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PURPOSE OF THE FLT WAS TO PROVIDE AIRBORNE INTERCEPT TRAINING FOR THE U.S. NAVY. THE MISSION HAD JUST BEEN COMPLETED& THE ACCIDENT ACFT, FNT701, & ANOTHER ACFT, FNT492, WERE RETURNING HOME WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. RADAR DATA SHOWED FNT701 WAS AT 22,700 FT WHEN IT DESCENDED SLIGHTLY TO 22,500 FT. FNT701 REMAINED AT THIS ALT FOR APRX 2 MINS 37 SECS, THEN BEGAN A DESCENT WHICH RESULTED IN IMPACT WITH THE OCEAN. THIS FINAL DESCENT RATE INITIALLY WAS ABOUT 5,000 FPM & INCREASED TO 19,000 FPM. NO DISTRESS CALLS WERE MADE; HOWEVER, TWO TRANSMISSIONS WERE RECORDED WHICH TOTALED APRX 30 SECS. THERE WAS NO VOICE COMMUNICATION DURING THESE TRANSMISSIONS, ONLY AN OPEN MIKE & THE SOUND OF PROP(S). DURING THE 1ST TRANSMISSION, THE WORD 'OH' COULD BE HEARD. FNT492 OBSERVED FNT701 DESCEND BELOW THE CLOUDS & DID NOT DETECT ANY DISTRESS SIGNALS. LITTLE WRECKAGE WAS RECOVERED DURING SEARCH & RESCUE OPERATIONS.
Probable cause
PILOT INCAPACITATION FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO89LA023
- Event ID
- 20001213X27698
- Case number
- BFO89LA023
- 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: 2046f3f13d1136524d94deafbbd4b7709cf2e0193029991c8ca02864158389d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:23:49.498Z.