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MIA90FA022

1989-11-01 · FORT MYERS, Florida, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport RSW

N50TR has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (EXCALIBUR AIRCRAFT EXCALIBUR), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO PROPERLY FOLLOW THE IFR PROCEDURE AND TO IDENTIFY THE DECISION HEIGHT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, DARKNESS, THE PILOT'S LACK OF VISUAL PERCEPTION WITHOUT THE APPROACH LIGHTS, AND TREE(S) IN THE ACCIDENT AREA.

Factual narrative

THE ACFT DEPD MIAMI AT NGT ON AN ON-DEMAND, AIR TAXI FLT TO FT MYERS, FL. DURING ARRIVAL AT THE DESTN, THE FLT ENCTRD IFR CONDS. THE PLT OBTAINED CLNC FOR AN ILS RWY 6 APCH & WAS TOLD TO RPRT AT THE OUTER MARKER (OM). AT 0152:25 EST, HE RPRTD TO MIAMI CENTER THAT HE WAS OVER THE OM. THIS WAS HIS LAST TRANSMISSION TO AN ATC FACILITY. AT ABOUT 0203 EST, HE MADE A TRANSMISSION ON UNICOM FREQ TO INFORM ARPT OPNS PSNL THAT HE COULD NOT GET THE APCH LIGHTS TO OPERATE. HE WAS ASKED IF HE HAD USED THE PROPER FREQ & HAD KEYED THE MIKE THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF TIMES. THE PLT INDCD THAT HE HAD PROPERLY KEYED THE MIKE; HOWEVER, UNICOM PSNL DID NOT HEAR ANY KEYING OF THE MIKE EXCEPT FOR 2 CLICKS. THE ACFT CTCD THE GND IN A NRLY LEVEL ATTITUDE & WITH THE GEAR EXTENDED, APRX 1.5 MI SHORT OF RWY 6. IT THEN SKIDDED ABOUT 90 FT & HIT A TREE BEFORE COMING TO REST. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FND WITH THE ACFT, ENG OR APCH/RWY LIGHTS. THE 0149 EST WX AT FT MYERS WAS IN PART: SKY OBSCURED, VIS 1/4 MI WITH FOG. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_MIA90FA022.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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