MIA85FA241 · Grumman AA-1B
Grumman AA-1B · Accident en route
From PFN · Panama City, FL to 34J · NEW SMYRNA BCH, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA85FA241
- 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 AA-1B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman AA-1
- 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
- N6502L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PFN · Panama City, FLTo 34J · NEW SMYRNA BCH, 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- 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 › Became lost/disoriented, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Equipment, other, not attained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Daytona Beach, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
PILOT DID NOT KNOW HOW TO TURN ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL LIGHTS NOR DID HE HAVE A FLASH LIGHT AVAILABLE. HE CONTINUED FLIGHT INTO DARKNESS OF NIGHT AT WHICH TIME HE BECAME DISORIENTED AND LOST. HE CONTINUED TO FLY UNTIL HE EXHAUSTED ALL FUEL ON THE AIRCRAFT AND THE ENGINE FAILED. WHILE MAKING A FORCED LANDING ON A BEACH HE COLLIDED WITH A WOODEN STAIRWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA85FA241
- Event ID
- 20001214X37560
- Case number
- MIA85FA241
- 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 1985-08-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 85f6382ab1141bbd52d5e56d141493427c3e7127011ba18ad5af240760a08520; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:10:43.468Z.