Gull Air Cessna 402 incident
Cessna 402 and Alpha Services Gates Learjet LR-35A · Incident: near collision between aircraft during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85IA208
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N68368
- Operator
- Gull Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PBI · WEST PALM BCH, FLTo Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 · Gates Learjet LR-35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet LR-35
- 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
- N163A
- Operator
- Alpha Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN), NassauTo Lynden Pindling International Airport (MYNN), Nassau
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Pilot in command › Interpretation of instructions, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Radio communications, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Interpretation of instructions, inaccurate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Radio communications, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A LEARIET 35 WAS CLEARED ON TO RUNWAY 09L AND HOLD, THE LEARJET CREW CONFIRMED WITH THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER PERSONNEL THAT THE TRANSMISSION WAS INTENDED FOR THEM AND TAXIED INTO POSITION AND HELD. PERSONNEL ON DUTY IN THE CONTROL TOWER THEN CLEARED A CESSNA 403 INTO POSITION AND HOLD ON RUNWAY 13. THE TOWER PERSONNEL THEN CLEARED THE LEARJET FOR DEPARTURE AND HE AKNOWLEDGED. BOTH AIRCRAFT THEN BEGAN TO TAKE OFF AND MISSED EACH OTHER BY ABOUT 10 FT AFTER BECOMING AIRBORNE. THE PILOT OF THE CESSNA STATED LATER THAT THE THOUGHT THE CLEARANCE WAS FOR HIM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85IA208
- Event ID
- 20001214X37192
- Case number
- MIA85IA208
- 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, 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: 97d8ca799aadbdd1f9d5cb621cfbe632aa3b4eccb690096fa21f857b1a2e9b8b; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:19:14.891Z.