ERA13CA130 · Dratbe Shmiel Amir CLASSIC EDGE X
Dratbe Shmiel Amir CLASSIC EDGE X · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport (X51) to Miami, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13CA130
- 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
- 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
Dratbe Shmiel Amir CLASSIC EDGE X
- Aircraft type
- Dratbe Shmiel Amir CLASSIC EDGE
- Category
- Weight-Shift
- 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
- N662DA
- Operator
- Mijares John A
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport (X51), Homestead, FLTo Miami, 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 · low-altitude flying
- Defining eventThe 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot/owner reported that he was flying eastbound with a passenger and was following two dirt roads, a set of power lines, and a canal that were all oriented east-west and parallel to one another. As the airplane flew along the canal, a "downdraft" or "rotor" caused a sudden loss of altitude, which placed the airplane directly in the flightpath of an intersecting (north/south) set of power lines that crossed the canal. The pilot attempted to fly under the power lines to avoid them but struck a tree on the canal's bank. The airplane then impacted the water and submerged, which resulted in substantial damage to the airframe. Witnesses reported observing the airplane flying just above the canal, below the height of the parallel lines, when it descended further, struck the tree, then the water. The student pilot/owner reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The student pilot's decision to fly at low altitude surrounded by tree, wire, and water hazards, and his failure to maintain clearance from those obstacles.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13CA130
- Event ID
- 20130209X21224
- Case number
- ERA13CA130
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: a2b422283143c6bca706133320887db1a16f1626d4276bd0cedab859f79fef4b; retrieved 2026-09-15T20:54:13.495Z.