MIA03FA068 · Beech 36
Beech 36 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Salty Approach Airport (FL90) to Page Field (FMY)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03FA068
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N41VK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salty Approach Airport (FL90), Captiva Island, FLTo Page Field (FMY), Fort Myers, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed
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, with an instrument rated private pilot at the controls, departed on a 19-nautical-mile flight from an island to the mainland across the ocean waters of a sound. A witness, who was an instrument rated private pilot, observed the airplane depart. The witness stated that the airplane "was in IMC [instrument meteorological conditions] about 100 feet MSL as he departed over the Gulf of Mexico." The witness further stated that "there was heavy fog everywhere." He listened to the sound of the airplane's engine "for a minute or two after departure to be sure there were no unusual sounds." A fisherman on the water in the area of the accident site, did not hear or see the accident, but did report that about the time of the accident, fog rolled in over the sound, reducing visibility to 0 feet for about 15 minutes. The visibility then increased to 50 feet. Radar tracked the flight for 1 minute and 39 seconds. The first radar hit showed the airplane about 1 nautical mile southeast of the departure airport at 400 feet msl. For the next 1 minute and 15 seconds, the airplane maintained an east-northeast heading, initially climbing to 700 feet and then descending to 500 feet. The airplane then began to turn left. The airplane had turned approximately 100 degrees and was passing through a northerly heading when the last radar hit was recorded. The last recorded radar hit showed the airplane at 500 feet about 4 nautical miles northeast of the departure airport. The on course heading from the departure airport to the destination was approximately due east. There were no radio communications from the airplane to any air traffic control facility. The pilot had intended to pick up some passengers at the destination airport, and when he did not arrive, concerned family members notified authorities. Search and rescue efforts were started, but were called off due to fog and darkness. The next morning, the airplane wreckage was located about 2 miles southeast of the departure airport in 5 feet of water. Examination of the wreckage revealed evidence indicating the airplane impacted the water in a left wing low and nose low attitude. No evidence of any pre-impact mechanical discrepancies with the airframe or engine was found that would have prevented normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions and his ensuing failure to maintain altitude/clearance resulting in an in-flight collision with the ocean. A factor was the fog.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03FA068
- Event ID
- 20030305X00286
- Case number
- MIA03FA068
- 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: deefce2083320924bc2d4128143aff9488baee7a6d198b5c2f85ff64f2ff3988; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:26:11.119Z.