ERA26LA167 · Cessna 172S
Phoenix East Aviation Cessna 172S and Beech Transport Raytheon Aircraft Company B200 · Accident: midair collision en route
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA26LA167
- 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
- Ongoing
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · 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
- Not recorded
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172S
- 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
- N529ND
- Operator
- Phoenix East Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From EYM · Key West, FLTo North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2009)
- 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Raytheon Aircraft Company B200
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 200
- 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
- N699BW
- Operator
- Beech Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Leonard M. Thompson International Airport (MHH), Marsh HarbourTo Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH), Marathon, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 27 years (built 1999)
- 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On April 11, 2026, about 1330 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172S airplane, N529ND sustained substantial damage and a Raytheon Aircraft Company B200 (King Air) airplane, N699BW sustained minor damage when they collided in flight near Marathon, Florida. The 2 pilots aboard the Cessna and the 2 pilots and 4 passengers aboard the King Air were not injured. The Cessna was being operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 instructional flight, and the King Air was being operated as Title 14 CFR Part 91 business flight. Preliminary air traffic control communications and ADS-B data provided by the FAA showed that the King Air departed Marsh Harbour (MHH), Bahamas to the southwest inbound to the Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH), Marathon, Florida. About 20 nautical miles northeast of MTH, the pilot requested to cancel their instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan to MTH. The IFR cancellation was received, and a frequency change was approved. Air traffic control informed the King Air pilots that there was traffic flying in the opposite direction at 15 miles and 5,500 ft “following the keychain.” The King Air pilots subsequently reset their transponder code from a discrete code to 1200 (the standard transponder code used by airplanes operating under visual flight rules [VFR]) as they were descending out of about 11,000 ft mean sea level (msl). The Cessna pilots reported that they were northeast bound at 5,500 ft msl, about 10 miles northwest of MTH, operating VFR with flight following. Air traffic control notified them of unknown traffic ahead at 12 o’clock and 1 mile descending out of 6,200 ft msl. Immediately after the traffic advisory, the Cessna pilot reported that “we had a midair collision,” declared an emergency, and returned to MTH for landing. The Cessna pilots stated that they had briefly observed the King Air immediately before the collision but were unable to take evasive action. The pilot advised the controller of left wing damage and control difficulties and requested emergency services upon landing. The pilot in command (PIC) of the King Air reported he was looking out the window, scanning for the traffic, when he observed the Cessna immediately before impact. He attempted evasive action; however, the left engine, wing and propeller impacted the left wing of the Cessna, which resulted in substantial damage to the Cessna’s wing and aileron. The outboard 36 inches of the Cessna’s left wing was sheared off and crumpled, with the aileron remaining partially attached, and bent aft. The King Air sustained minor damage to the left propeller, engine intake and the leading edge of the left wing. Both airplanes landed safely at MTH and were retained for further examination following the collision.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA26LA167
- Event ID
- 20260414202815
- Case number
- ERA26LA167
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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: c0649216c16082bb9d0e6a556df8539627a1af402ff8a3b68604779490bcfc4d; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:52:24.658Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states the King Air N699BW 'sustained minor damage' and specifies minor damage to the left propeller, engine intake and left wing leading edge, while only the Cessna was substantially damaged.