MIA89LA191 · Grumman G-44
Grumman G-44 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From 3X1 · Delray Beach, FL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA191
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Grumman G-44
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-44
- 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
- N4453
- Operator
- Rodney N. Matthews · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3X1 · Delray 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, poor
- Water loop/swerve › Inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT HE HAD COMPLETED 2 T.O.& LDGS WHILE KEEPING THE ACFT ON THE STEP. AFTER THE 3RD LDG, WHILE TRANSITIONING FROM STEP TAXI TO PLOW TAXI, THE PLT STATED HE THOUGHT HE STRUCK A 'MUD BANK.' THIS CAUSED THE RT WING TO BE RAISED TO A POINT WHERE THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT AILERON TO KEEP THE LT FLOAT OUT OF THE WATER. HE STATED THE ACFT VEERED LT, THEN FLIPPED UP-SIDE DOWN IN ABOUT 18 INCHES OF WATER, TEARING OFF A SECTION OF THE RT WING. LOCAL LAW PERSONNEL STATED THE WATER IS ABOUT 18 INCHES DEEP IN ALL DIRECTION FOR OVER A MILE FROM THE CRASH SITE AND THERE ARE NO 'MUD BANKS' OR OTHER OBSTRUCTIONS. HE STATED THERE ARE SOME 'HOLES' WHERE THE DEPTH INCREASES, BUT NO SHALLOWER AREAS. THE PLT STATED THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE ACFT PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT LOSS OF AIRPLANE CONTROL, WHILE ON THE WATER, WHICH RESULTED IN A SWERVE AND SUBSEQUENT ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA191
- Event ID
- 20001213X28898
- Case number
- MIA89LA191
- 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: b48a651ea48280092aed0d3674e9ac35b57cd8dbb75eb0fc73a5111ea5f44a75; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:24:43.796Z.