MIA01TA237 · Aerofab Inc. Lake Seawolf
Aerofab Inc. Lake Seawolf · Accident: overrun during takeoff
From Bartow Executive Airport (BOW) to MacDill Air Force Base (KMCF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA01TA237
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Government
- 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
Aerofab Inc. Lake Seawolf
- Aircraft type
- Aerofab LAKE SEAWOLF
- 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
- N65RF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bartow Executive Airport (BOW), Bartow, FLTo MacDill Air Force Base (KMCF), MacDill AFB, 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Overrun
- 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
- Flightcrew › Distance, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft operator reported that after takeoff from MacDill AFB, the flight proceeded to Lake Hancock, where four takeoffs and landings were performed. The flight then proceeded to Bartow, Florida, where the airplane was refueled. The flight departed Bartow at 1100 and proceeded to Lake Buffum. A landing was performed on Lake Buffum followed by a short back taxi prior to commencing takeoff. The instructor pilot took control of the airplane from the dual student during the takeoff run as the airplane approached the end of the lake. The airplane was flying in ground effect when it crossed the edge of the lake, skid 60 feet up a gradual grass slope and launched approximately 4 feet off the ground. The airplane flew 349 feet at this altitude, clearing 2 barbed wire fences and crossing under power lines. The airplane clipped the top of a third barbed wire fence. The airplane started to lightly drag its tail traveling for 152 feet in this manner. The airplane got back into the air for 130 feet in time to clear a 56 foot wide ditch. The instructor pilot, seeing a flat field ahead and realizing the airplane was not going to climb, cut the power and set the airplane down. The airplane skid on its belly for 251 feet. The wave height in the lake was estimated at 10 inches, the wind was out of the southeast at 12 knots, and the takeoff was to the east-southeast. The aircraft operator reported they found no mechanical problems with the aircraft structure, flight controls, engine, or propeller after the accident.
Probable cause
The failure of the instructor pilot and dual student to begin the water takeoff with adequate clearance from the lake shore for the dual student to complete the takeoff and the failure of the instructor pilot to recognize in a timely manner during the takeoff that there was not adequate clearance from the lake shore to complete the takeoff and abort the takeoff, resulting in the airplane colliding with the terrain near the lake shore and coming to rest in a field about 900 feet inland from the lake shore.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA01TA237
- Event ID
- 20031003X01651
- Case number
- MIA01TA237
- 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: e92f14f3681fe592d7f00f0a628b70947d107db5997166522c9a51d9d6af669d; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:20:53.774Z.