ATL95FA046 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) to DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95FA046
- 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
Beech A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N3086T
- Operator
- Ramsey, John E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FLTo DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK)
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS PROVIDED VECTORS FOR AN ILS RUNWAY 20L APPROACH IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC). IN ANTICIPATION OF OTHER TRAFFIC, THE RADAR CONTROLLER VECTORED THE AIRCRAFT ONTO A CLOSE-IN FINAL APPROACH. THE AIRCRAFT INTERCEPTED THE LOCALIZER ABOUT .5 MILE OUTSIDE THE OUTER MARKER WITH A 35-DEGREE INTERCEPT. THE ILS APPROACH GATE IS DEFINED AS BEING 1 MILE OUTSIDE THE OUTER MARKER, AND AIRCRAFT ARE REQUIRED TO BE VECTORED TO INTERCEPT AT LEAST 2 MILES OUTSIDE THE GATE. (ACCORDING TO FAA ORDER 7110.65G, THE MAXIMUM ANGLE OF INTERCEPT WITHIN 2 MILES OF THE APPROACH GATE IS 20 DEGREES.) RADAR DATA INDICATED THAT, ABOUT 2.5 MILES FROM THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY, THERE WERE ERRATIC HEADING AND ALTITUDE EXCURSIONS. THESE LASTED FOR ABOUT 2 MINUTES, AND THEN THE PILOT CALLED A MISSED APPROACH. DURING THE MISSED APPROACH, THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A DESCENDING RIGHT TURN AND CRASHED. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING AT HIGH RPM AT THE TIME OF IMPACT. EXAMINATION OF THE AUTOPILOT DID NOT INDICATE EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. THE PILOT DID NOT REPORT ANY AIRCRAFT PROBLEMS. THE PILOT HAD JUST ATTENDED A BONANZA OWNER'S PROFICIENCY COURSE. AN INSTRUCTOR FOR THAT COURSE SAID THE PILOT'S SKILLS AT INSTRUMENT FLYING WERE POOR AND THAT HE WOULD NOT SIGN OFF THE PILOT'S INSTRUMENT COMPETENCY CHECK.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL AFTER BECOMING SPATIALLY DISORIENTED. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S LACK OF PROFICIENCY (RECENT EXPERIENCE) IN INSTRUMENT FLYING, AND IMPROPER APPROACH CONTROL SERVICE BY VECTORING THE AIRPLANE ONTO THE ILS LOCALIZER COURSE AT AN INADEQUATE DISTANCE FROM THE OUTER MARKER AND AT AN INTERCEPT ANGLE THAT DID NOT ALLOW THE PILOT TO ESTABLISH A STABILIZED APPROACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95FA046
- Event ID
- 20001207X02814
- Case number
- ATL95FA046
- 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: b89ec6fa3e3b1932db0ccc67e36167a863e35140e14a0864d4917c2845cb5e2b; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:52:43.397Z.