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MIA82DA111 · Cessna 172N

17 Apr 1982 · NEAR WESTBAY, FL, United States

Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Ocala, FL to Destin, FL

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Event

NTSB case
MIA82DA111
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
3 · 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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Cessna 172N

Aircraft type
Cessna 172
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
N5186D
Operator
Morris A. Frazier · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ocala, FLTo 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 · 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
In flight encounter with weather
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 handling, uncontrolled
  • Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
  • Pilot in command › Lack of total experience
  • Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING THE WX BRIEFING THE PLT WAS ADVISED THAT VFR FLT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO LOW CEILINGS & VISBILITIES JUST EAST OF PANAMA CITY & ALONG THE GULF COAST. AT 2015, APPROXIMATELY 28 MI SE OF DESTIN, THE PLT CONTACTED EGLIN APPROACH CONTROL(A/C) & WAS ADVISED THAT EGLIN A/C HAD NO WX CAPABILITY FOR DESTIN. SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE PLT WAS ADVISED THAT THE EGLIN CONTROL ZONE WAS IFR & WAS ASKED IF HE WAS IFR QUALIFIED. THE PLT STATED HE WAS NOT. THERE WERE NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PLT. THE ACFT THEN APPEARED TO BE IN AN ORBIT, & A FEW MINUTES LATER RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. ON 4/27/82 THE PLT'S BODY WASHED ASHORE ON THE GULF COAST IN THE VICINTIY OF THE ACFT'S LAST KNOWN POSITION. THE WRECKAGE WAS NOT RECOVERED & THE TWO PAX ARE MISSING & PRESUMED FATAL. THE PLT HAD RECEIVED HIS PRIVATE PLT CERTIFICATE ON 4/3/82.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA82DA111
Event ID
20020917X02392
Case number
MIA82DA111
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 1982-04-18.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: c6c18aaf324d587982982f75e52513778c4c6244bee6d1f2745e59122f92fe1c; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:30:31.125Z.