MIA02FAMS1 · Ayres S2RHG-T65

The airplane was being ferried from Colombia to Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, for maintenance. The pilot had stopped in Providenciales and remained over night prior to initiating the last leg of the trip. The pilot was given an instrument flight rules clearance from Providenciales to Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, by controllers at the Providenciales Airport Control Tower, and departed about 0820. At 0823, while climbing through 2,000 feet msl, after departure from Providenciales, the pilot of N3101G made contact with air traffic controllers at the FAA Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center. At 0848:51, the controller informed the pilot of N3101G that the flight would have to land in either Nassau or Freeport, Bahamas to clear up a problem with his permission to fly to Patrick Air Force Base. The pilot of N3101G selected Freeport, and was cleared to Freeport. At 0918:39, the pilot of N3101G reported to the controller that he was 83 miles from "Burgo" intersection, level at 10,000 feet, and in heavy rain. At 0920:53, the controller informed the pilot he could not land at Patrick Air Force Base unless he had his permission number. The pilot responded "I can't talk to you I'm very very heavy rain (unintelligible) once I get out of the rain I will (unintelligible)". The controller responded that the flight would have to clear customs at Freeport, and then it could proceed to Patrick Air Force Base. At 0921:47, the pilot of N3101G responded he had customs waiting for him at Patrick Air Force Base. No further transmissions were received from the pilot of N3101G. Search and rescue operations were initiated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The pilot and aircraft were not located and search operations were suspended on October 6, 2001, at 0050. The GOES-8 satellite infrared image at 0902, showed a large band of clouds extending from south of Cuba, northeast over the Bahamas, and then eastward across the Atlantic Ocean north and northeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Several large areas cumulonimbus clouds are embedded in this area. Cloud tops were between 46,000 and 49,000 feet. The GOES-8 visible image for 0932 depicts a cumulonimbus cloud immediately in the vicinity of the last know position of N3101G, which was embedded in a straitform layer of clouds. At the time the flight became missing, SIGMET Alpha 15 was in effect for the last know position of the flight. This SIGMET called for frequent thunderstorms with tops to 45,000 feet. The pilot received a weather package via fax machine prior to departing Providenciales. The weather package called for isolated thunderstorms with tops to 45,000 feet from the departure point through the northern Bahamas.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset