Trans World Airlines Boeing 727 incident
Boeing 727 and Faa Beech 300 · Incident: near collision between aircraft en route
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA90IA039
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 727
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- N64339
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), NEW YORK, NYTo Orlando International Airport (MCO), Orlando, 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Beech 300
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 300
- 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
- N72
- Operator
- Faa
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY), Atlanta, GATo X47 · Bunnell, 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(artcc) › IFR separation standards, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Atc clearance, not followed
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
- Pilot of other aircraft › Atc clearance, not followed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Diverted attention
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ormond Beach, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AN FAA BEECH 300, CALL SIGN: FLT CHECK 72 (FLC72), WAS HDG SE ON J79 AT FL260, WHILE TWA FLT 393 WAS HDG SOUTH ON J45 AT FL310. BOTH HAD IFR CLNCS & WERE BEING CTLD BY THE R58 CTLR AT JACKSONVILLE ARTCC. AT THAT TIME, THE CTLR WAS BUSY WORKING A NUMBER OF OTR ACFT. FLC72 REQUESTED A DSCNT, BUT THE DSCNT WAS DELAYED WHILE THE CTLR COORDINATED TFC WITH ANOTHER CTLR. IN THE MEANTIME, FLT 393 WAS CLRD TO DSCND TO FL240. ABT 90 SEC LTR, FLC72 WAS TOLD TO FLY A HDG OF 195 DEG & TO DSCND & MAINT 16,000'. FLC72 ACKNOWLEDGED, BUT DID NOT DSCND IN A TIMELY MANNER, NOR DID THE CTLR NOTE THE ANOMALY. SUBSEQUENTLY, FLC72 & FLT 393 CONVERGED TO ABT .8 MI HORIZONTAL SEPN AT THE SAME ALT. THIS OCCURRED WHEN THE CAPT OF FLC72 ALLOWED THE COPLT TO LEAVE THE COCKPIT & LET ANOTHER FAA EMPLOYEE OCCUPY THE COPLT'S SEAT. THE CAPT RPRTD THAT HE MAY HAVE BECOME DISTRACTED WHILE BRIEFING THE EMPLOYEE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT IN COMMAND IN THE BEECH 300 TO COMPLY WITH AN ATC CLEARANCE IN A TIMELY MANNER, WHILE DIVERTING HIS ATTENTION, AND FAILURE OF THE ATC CONTROLLER TO ASSURE THAT IFR SEPARATION WAS MAINTAINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA90IA039
- Event ID
- 20001213X29992
- Case number
- MIA90IA039
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (6)
- 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, damage. 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: 077f1599465e1d4e4548c6aae5b162ddaafb658ddbe51f3899b8c16586ac07b1; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:06:24.942Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N64339; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, TWAA.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "AN FAA BEECH 300, CALL SIGN: FLT CHECK 72 (FLC72), WAS HDG SE ON J79 AT FL260"