MIA02LA139 · Interavia E-3
Interavia E-3 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Destin Executive Airport (KDTS) to Destin Executive Airport (KDTS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02LA139
- 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
- 1 · 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
Interavia E-3
- Aircraft type
- Interavia E-3
- 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
- N1535G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Destin Executive Airport (KDTS), Destin, FLTo Destin Executive Airport (KDTS), Destin, 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 · descent
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Window, canopy › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight departed at 1034, and approximately 5 minutes after takeoff, the pilot advised a controller at Eglin Approach Control that his flight was 2 miles southeast of the east training area. There was no contact with the pilot and that facility until 1134, when the pilot advised the controller that the flight was returning to his departure airport. A witness who was located within 1 mile of the accident site reported watching the airplane for about 15-20 minutes, and near the end of the flight, observed the airplane loop followed by several rolls. When the airplane was positioned nose down at a 45-degree angle, he and his brother observed a piece either 3 feet by 3 feet, or 2 feet by 3 feet separate from the airplane. The witness did not believe the airplane was out of control at that point in time. Review of recorded radar data consisting of primary radar returns revealed the last radar returns indicate the airplane was turning to the left; altitude information was not available. The airplane crashed into a heavily wooded area; no evidence of in-flight breakup or postcrash fire was noted. The canopy was missing from the accident site and was not located. Examination of the airplane by FAA airworthiness inspectors revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction of the flight controls. Examination of the canopy mechanism and engine by the NTSB revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction.
Probable cause
The separation of the canopy for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02LA139
- Event ID
- 20020802X01290
- Case number
- MIA02LA139
- 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: 3d191187f31860590f08252a09151d99843397af38586e987fd6eaef893359ca; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:56:37.484Z.