MIA89FA088 · Cessna 320E
Cessna 320E · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Marco Island Executive Airport (MKY) to GNU · Gainesville, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89FA088
- 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
- 2 · 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 320E
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N3488Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marco Island Executive Airport (MKY), Marco Island, FLTo GNU · Gainesville, FL
- 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 initial 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
- 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 › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT INITIATED A CROSSCOUNTRY FLIGHT AND ENCOUNTERED IMC CONDITIONS NEAR HIS DESTINATION. HE REQUESTED AND RECEIVED AN IFR CLEARANCE. THE PILOT CONSISTENTLY DID NOT RESPOND TO ATC INSTRUCTIONS. THE FINAL ATC VECTOR TO INTERCEPT THE LOCALIZER COURSE REQUIRED A 220 DEGREE RIGHT TURN WHICH WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN A 30 DEGREE ANGLE OF INTERCEPT. DURING THE TURN AIRCRAFT CONTROL WAS LOST AND THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED IN A FARM YARD. WITNESSES REPORTED HEARING STRONG ENGINE SOUNDS PRIOR TO IMPACT. EXAM OF THE AIRCRAFT DID NOT DISCLOSE EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL FAILURE OR SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. EXAM OF THE PROPS SHOWED IMPACT DAMAGE CONSISTENT WITH CRUISE POWER. THE WRECKAGE EXAM INDICATED THE GEAR AND FLAPS IN THE UP AND RETRACTED POSITION. NO DETERMINATION COULD BE MADE AS TO THE PILOT'S RECENCY OF INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE OR INSTRUMENT COMPETENCY.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO COMPLY PROMPTLY WITH ATC INSTRUCTIONS AND HIS LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO SPATIAL DISORIENTATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89FA088
- Event ID
- 20001213X27758
- Case number
- MIA89FA088
- 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: 62ad6ccb8dfcd09996949af1aea02a436a0cd8054a19403af00c9ab1deecffac; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:24:11.723Z.