Air Carriers Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30 accident
Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA037
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N6517C
- Operator
- Air Carriers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, ALTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Electrical tower
- 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 › Altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE DEPARTURE THE PILOT WAS ADVISED OF THE FORECAST ALTITUDE OF THE FREEZING LEVEL AND WAS ALSO ADVISED THAT THE TEMPERATURE AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT WAS 15 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT ABOVE FREEZING. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED AND EN ROUTE EXPERIENCED WHAT THE PILOT REPORTED AS LIGHT RIME ICING. AT THE PILOT'S REQUEST THE FLIGHT WAS CLEARED TO RETURN AND THE CONTROLLER ADVISED THE PILOT THAT AN ALTERNATE AIRPORT WITH A NON-PRECISION INSTRUMENT APPROACH PROCEDURE WAS NEARBY. THE PILOT ELECTED TO CONTINUE TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT ON AN ASSIGNED HEADING AND REQUESTED A LOWER ALTITUDE. THE CONTROLLER CLEARED THE FLIGHT TO CRUISE 2,500 FEET. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH AN ELECTRICAL TOWER AND 250 KV CABLE ABOUT 90 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL THEN IMPACTED THE GROUND. THE TOWER WAS LOCATED ABOUT 14.3 NM AND 266 DEGREES FROM THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT CERTIFICATED FOR FLIGHT INTO ICING CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
POOR IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND FOR FAILURE TO DEVIATE TO AN ALTERNATE AIRPORT AFTER ENCOUNTERING ICING CONDITIONS IN AN AIRPLANE NOT CERTIFICATED FOR FLIGHT IN ICING CONDITIONS. ALSO, FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE RESULTING IN THE INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH AN ELECTRICAL TOWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA037
- Event ID
- 20001206X02762
- Case number
- MIA95FA037
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-12-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7686a753aad772b534f3185e4f3b9f4a5a4a73f800b4ad246c77f95bc136af10; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:45:30.834Z.