ATL95FA008 · Piper PA-28-151
Consolidated Aviation SVCS Piper PA-28-151 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) to Conway Horry County Airport (HYW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95FA008
- 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
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-151
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N7207C
- Operator
- Consolidated Aviation SVCS
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), Atlantic City, NJTo Conway Horry County Airport (HYW), SC
- 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMERCIAL/CFI WAS FLYING A VOR/DME APPROACH, AT NIGHT, TO AN UNCONTROLLED FIELD. HE WAS SEATED IN THE RIGHT SEAT. THE CLOSEST WEATHER STATION WAS REPORTING 200 FOOT OVERCAST SKIES. THE PILOT WAS AWARE OF LOW GROUND FOG, AND ASKED THE LEFT SEAT PILOT (NOT INSTRUMENT RATED) TO LOOK FOR THE RUNWAY. AT THE MISSED APPROACH POINT, THE RUNWAY WAS NOT IN SIGHT, AND THE PILOT EXECUTED A MISSED APPROACH. AFTER ABOUT 180 DEGREES OF TURN, THE LEFT SEATER CALLED OUT THAT HE THOUGHT HE SAW THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT LOOKED OVER HIS LEFT SHOULDER, OUT THE LEFT, REAR WINDOW, FOR THE RUNWAY. HE DID NOT RECALL ANY SUBSEQUENT EVENTS, BUT STATED THAT HE WAS HAVING NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRCRAFT OR INSTRUMENTS. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TALL TREES ABOUT 1/2 MILE EAST OF THE RUNWAY. A PASSENGER REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING UNTIL THE COLLISION OCCURRED. INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION/FAILURE. THE PILOT HAD RECEIVED HIS CFI CERTIFICATE 5 DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER ALTITUDE DURING THE MISSED APPROACH, RESULTING IN A COLLISION WITH TREES AND TERRAIN. FACTORS WERE THE WEATHER CONDITIONS (LOW CEILING, FOG), AND THE PILOT'S DIVERTED ATTENTION OUTSIDE THE COCKPIT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95FA008
- Event ID
- 20001206X02375
- Case number
- ATL95FA008
- 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: c7b3b2670011ce7490f48e6155c83e715413be68825e40aeb1fdec057de4951c; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:57:32.374Z.