MIA02FA045 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) to Jacksonville International Airport (JAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02FA045
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N7701J
- Operator
- Donald W. Weidner · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, FLTo Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Jacksonville, 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane crashed during the missed approach segment of the instrument landing system (ILS) approach to runway 7 at Jacksonville International Airport (JAX). This was the third airport the pilot tried to land after unsuccessful attempts due to low clouds and visibilities at two other airports. During the ILS approach to JAX, the air traffic controller advised the pilot that two flights had landed earlier with each reporting breaking out of the clouds 50 to 100 feet above the decision height and initially only the approach lights being visible. The pilot subsequently radioed he was on a missed approach. The controller, and another flight on the ground later heard a partially unclear transmission with the pilot indicating his instruments were malfunctioning. Witnesses either heard or saw the airplane over fly the airport. Two witnesses stated they heard the sounds of the engine increase and one reported he thereafter heard the airplane turn north, circle several times, and descend followed by the sound of a crash. Recorded radar data indicate that before radar contact was lost the airplane did complete circling turns to the left while at the same time climbing to 1000 feet and then descending to 300 feet. Radar contact of the airplane was lost 2 miles south of the accident site. The airplane crashed in a wooded area and came to rest about 200 feet from the initial tree impact point. The examination of the airplane did not disclose evidence of mechanical malfunction.
Probable cause
The pilot becoming spatially disoriented and losing control of the airplane during a missed approach resulting in the airplane descending uncontrolled and colliding with trees and the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02FA045
- Event ID
- 20011218X02407
- Case number
- MIA02FA045
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-12-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1dfd2eabbf23a2195dc1fc957c2030bfc97f523d29c5df0a198193f3288b1b69; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:15:58.167Z.