ATL94IA055 · Cessna 421B
Federal Aviation Admin Cessna 421B · Incident: airframe, component or system failure while taxiing
From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94IA055
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 421B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N421HA
- Operator
- Federal Aviation Admin
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY), Atlanta, GATo not recorded
- 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
- Taxi
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Pilot in command › Evasive maneuver, performed
- Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE THE PILOT WAS TAXIING FOR ANOTHER TAKEOFF AFTER COMPLETING A FULL STOP LANDING, THE PASSENGER REPORTED HE WAS ASKED TO CHECK THE RIGHT BRAKE. HE THEN PUMPED THE BRAKE BUT IT DID NOT RESPOND. AT THIS POINT THE PILOT APPLIED LEFT BRAKING AND SWERVED THE AIRPLANE OFF THE TAXIWAY TO AVOID, ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, WHAT HE FELT WAS AN IMMINENT COLLISION WITH ANOTHER TAXIING AIRPLANE. DURING THE SWERVE MANEUVER ONE OF THE LEFT PROPELLER BLADES STRUCK A TAXIWAY LIGHT. THIS ACTION WAS TAKEN WHEN THE PILOT BELIEVED THAT THE RIGHT WHEEL BRAKE WAS NOT FULLY OPERATIONAL AND CAPABLE OF STOPPING THE AIRCRAFT. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE TWO APPROACHING AIRPLANES WAS IN EXCESS OF 300 FT. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION OF THE BRAKE ASSEMBLY FAILED TO DISCLOSE A MECHANICAL PROBLEM. THE DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE STATED THAT THERE HAD NOT BEEN ANY OTHER PILOT REPORTS OF BRAKING PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRPLANE BEFORE OR AFTER THE OCCURRENCE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INTENTIONAL SWERVE OFF THE TAXIWAY TO AVOID A GROUND COLLISION. A FACTOR IN THE INCIDENT WAS AN UNDETERMINED MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRPLANE'S NORMAL BRAKE SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94IA055
- Event ID
- 20001206X00696
- Case number
- ATL94IA055
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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. 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: 97c99c951fa98af5386dde0cf8718806d03e0e5b512fd48c1d27876d59afc9a6; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:18:14.184Z.