National Airlines Flight 16
Lockheed 18-50 Lodestar · Pilot error
From Miami, Florida to Lakeland Municipal Airport
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 15
- Survivors
- 13
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 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
- Airline
Lockheed 18-50 Lodestar
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed 18
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- NC18199
- Operator
- National Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Miami, FloridaTo Lakeland Municipal Airport
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
National Airlines Flight 16 was a domestic (U.S.), scheduled passenger flight from Miami, Florida, to Lakeland, Florida, that crashed on October 5, 1945. The aircraft was on the last leg of a Miami-Fort Myers-Sarasota-St Petersburg-Tampa-Lakeland route. The cause of the crash was determined to be a faulty missed approach procedure, which caused the aircraft to overshoot the runway and land in Lake Parker approximately 1000 ft beyond. Two passengers drowned, and several others were injured.
Flight and crash
The aircraft, a Lockheed 18-50 Lodestar, departed Miami at 9:12 p.m. on October 4, 1945, 1 hour, 15 minutes behind schedule due to delays in previous flights. The flight progressed normally during stops at Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Tampa. The plane departed Tampa at 12:45 a.m. and continued towards Lakeland.
Lakeland reported 9 miles of visibility with scattered clouds at 500 ft. At 12:58 a.m., at seven miles from the airfield, the pilots established a straight-in descent to the northeastern runway. The descent continued normally until the aircraft reached 600 ft, when the aircraft abruptly entered an unexpected cloud. This prompted the captain to retract the landing gear and tell the first officer that he was going to initiate a missed approach, and go around for a second attempt at landing.
Witnesses on the ground observed that the aircraft continued along the runway at approximately 30 to 40 ft above the surface. It passed the end of the runway and struck the surface of the Lake Parker adjacent to the Lakeland airport approximately 1000 ft beyond the end of the runway. The aircraft skipped an additional 1000 ft, shedding fuselage covering as it went, before sinking in 10 ft of water.
Two passengers drowned. All other occupants escaped from the wreckage and were rescued by locals within thirty minutes.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Civil Aeronautics Board investigators examined the wreckage and determined that there had been no malfunction or failure of aircraft equipment. The condition of the wreckage indicated that the plane had first struck the water in a level bellyflop.
The Civil Aeronautics Board determined that:
Because of the captain's unfamiliarity with the aircraft specifications, he waited too long to commit himself to the go-around procedure, dooming the aircraft as immediate action was necessary. The CAB also determined that the pilot had available alternative procedures which would have enabled him to complete the maneuver safely. The cause of the crash was ultimately determined to be due to pilot error.
Text from the Wikipedia article “National Airlines Flight 16” (revision 1336131462, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: National Airlines Flight 16
- Article
- National Airlines Flight 16
- Revision
- 1336131462 · 2026-02-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q16982409
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "National Airlines Flight 16" (page 24335575, revision 1336131462)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.