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MIA85FA123 · Aronson FALCO F8L

16 Mar 1985 · Gainesville, FL, United States

Aronson FALCO F8L · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG) to Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV)

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Event

NTSB case
MIA85FA123
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

Aronson FALCO F8L

Aircraft type
Aronson FALCO F8L
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
N545SF
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG), Bowling Green, KYTo Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV), 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
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
In flight encounter with weather
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Fuel exhaustion; Stall/spin
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

  • Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gainesville, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT RECEIVED A WX BRIEFING & FILED AN IFR CLNC, THEN DEPARTED VFR. EXCEPT FOR A HDWND, THE 1ST PART OF THE FLT WAS NORMAL. IN THE VCNTY OF MACON, GA, THE PLT REQUESTED & RECEIVED AN IFR CLNC. LATER, HE ELECTED TO DIVERT TO THE GAINES- VILLE RGNL ARPT & WAS VECTORED FOR AN ILS 28 APCH. WHILE DIVERTING, HE INDICATED SOME CONFUSION CONCERNING THE APCH PLATES; AT 1ST, HE STARTED USING THE GAINESVILLE, GA PLATE, THEN HE SWITCHED TO THE CORRECT PLATE (GAINESVILLE, FL). HE HAD DIFFICULTY MAINTAINING HEADING ON THE ILS & MADE A MISSED APCH 2 MI EAST OF THE ARPT. HE ADMITTED HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE APCH, DECLARED A LOW FUEL STATE & RECEIVED VECTORS FOR ANOTHER ILS. AGAIN, HE HAD DIFFICULTY MAINTAINING HEADING CONTROL. ON THE 2ND APCH, THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO FLY OVER THE FIELD & THE PLT WAS CLEARED TO LAND ON ANY RWY. HOWEVER, THE ACFT CRASHED ON THE APCH END OF RWY 6. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF LITTLE MOVEMENT AFTER IMPACT & VERY LITTLE CHORDWISE SCRAPING OF THE PROP. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS OR FUEL INJECTOR LINES.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA85FA123
Event ID
20001214X35978
Case number
MIA85FA123
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-03-17.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 036660b9e10106f62815f9f9d3943eec3a7ae47f73cbb0441933a57c9009a428; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:06:26.065Z.