MIA01FA074 · American 8KCAB
American 8KCAB and Flugzeugbau EA-300 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA01FA074
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 · American 8KCAB
- Aircraft type
- American 8
- 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
- N123WA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (OCF), Ocala, FLTo Leesburg International Airport (LEE), Leesburg, 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Flugzeugbau EA-300
- Aircraft type
- Flugzeugbau EA-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
- N301NL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, FLTo Leesburg International Airport (LEE), Leesburg, 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- 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
- Flightcrew › Visual separation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual separation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Leesburg Municipal Airport has no operating control tower. The Decathlon conducted a long straight-in approach to Leesburg's runway 13 while the Extra 300 was conducting practice landings from a left traffic pattern. A ground collision occurred between the Decathlon's empennage, and the Extra's propeller/spinner and wing leading edge as the Decathlon was in its decelerating ground roll and the Extra was in the latter stage of its landing flare. The forces imparted to the Decathlon caused it to become airborne, nose high, and execute a roll about its longitudinal axis. The aircraft came to rest on the runway, inverted. The Extra under ran the Decathlon, commenced a skid, and sheared its right wheel/brake assembly. Both aircraft were substantially damaged, and the Decathlon pilot received minor injuries. Numerous witnesses stated they heard no radio calls on the proper UNICOM/CTAF frequency from either aircraft. The UNICOM/CTAF frequency had been changed from 122.7 to 122.725, and was properly displayed in the Southeast Airport/Facility Directory, (A/FD) effective November 30, 2000. The Aeronautical Information Manual, Chapter 4, " Air Traffic Control", recommends for traffic operations at airports without an operating control tower, (1) Enter pattern in level flight, abeam the midpoint of the runway, at pattern altitude. (1,000' agl is recommended pattern altitude unless established otherwise...), (2) Maintain pattern altitude until abeam approach end of the landing runway on downwind leg, (3) Complete turn to final at least 1/4 mile from the runway.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot of N123WA and the failure of both pilots of N301NL to adequately insure visual separation between their aircraft and other aircraft in the landing pattern, resulting in a runway collision. Factors contributing to the accident were the pilots of both aircraft not using the correct UNICOM/CTAF frequency, and the pilot of N123WA executing a landing approach that conflicted with the traffic pattern entry recommended by the Aeronautical Information Manual for airports without operating control towers.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA01FA074
- Event ID
- 20010213X00439
- Case number
- MIA01FA074
- 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, coordinates. 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: 0bca1012f9c5dfd8bc15b7460fbd3502a2fd8c1c232f2acb38e694a6592758d8; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:00:47.869Z.