DCA87MA029 · Cessna 340A
Cessna 340A and North American SNJ-4 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA87MA029
- 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
- 4 · 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N8716K
- Operator
- B. Lefils
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Huntsville, ALTo 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 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · North American SNJ-4
- Aircraft type
- North American SNJ-4
- 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
- N711SQ
- Operator
- R. Favrean
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Crew/group coordination, not performed
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Identification of aircraft on radar, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE TWO ACFT, A CESSNA 340A AND A NORTH AMERICAN SNJ-4, COLLIDED IN FLT AT APRX 3000 FT MSL OVER ORLANDO, FL IN VMC WITH A VISIBILITY OF 7 MILES. BOTH ACFT WERE IN CONTACT WITH AND BEING RADAR VECTORED BY ORLANDO APPROACH CONTROL. THE C-340 WAS IN LEVEL FLT AND THE SNJ WAS COMPLETING A RIGHT TURN AND STILL DESCENDING TO 1500 FT WHEN THE COLLISION OCCURRED. BOTH ACFT WERE OPERATING UNDER IFR FLT RULES WITH THE C-340 BEING VECTORED TO RWY 18R AT ORLANDO INTERNATIONALARPT (MCO) AND THE SNJ BEING DIRECTED TO ORLANDO EXECUTIVE ARPT (ORL). THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED 7 MILES NW OF ORL IN THE MCO ARPT RADAR SERVICE OUTER AREA. DURING THE VECTORING, THERE WAS A LACK OF COORDINATION BETWEEN CONTROLLERS DURING A TRANSFER OF CONTROL. THE RECEIVING CONTROLLER FAILED TO MAINTAIN RADAR TARGET IDENTIFICATION. THERE WAS ALSO A LACK OF TRAFFIC ADVISORIES. THE ACFT PLTS WERE LIMITED IN THEIR ABILITY TO SEE DUE TO ACFT STRUCTURE AND RELATIVE POSITIONS TO EACH OTHER. AFTER THE COLLISION, BOTH ACFT CRASHED IN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA87MA029
- Event ID
- 20001213X30903
- Case number
- DCA87MA029
- 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: 101fda82f42529881437f54c98af5acc096216dd8519d2694340dc6123e8931d; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:09:16.165Z.