Tallahassee – Panama City

On March 3, 1993 at 06:58 AM, Tallahassee – Panama City experienced a crash involving Piper PA-60 Aerostar (Ted Smith 600), operated by Cherokee Express Air Cargo, with the event recorded near Panama City Florida.

The flight was categorized as cargo and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

1 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The flight had been cleared for the VOR-A approach, with instructions to circle to a right downwind and land on runway 14. The tower controller observed the airplane emerge from the overcast over runway 23 abeam the VOR, then make a tight right turn onto the downwind leg, parallel to runway 14 and close in. When the airplane was abeam the runway 14 threshold, she observed the nose pitch up, and the airplane did what she described as a wing over. It then dove and impacted the runway near the threshold. The controller stated that the pilot made this round trip every day, and she had seen him do this maneuver on several occasions. The pilot, sole on board, was killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N90399, MSN 60-0226-096, year of manufacture 1975.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 30.1587°, -85.6603°.