ATL95FA128 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Albany International Airport (ALB) to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95FA128
- 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
- 2 · 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-28R-200
- 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
- N15743
- Operator
- Richard E. Bernstein · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Albany International Airport (ALB), Albany, NYTo Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU)
- 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 final 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Decision height, below
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Raleigh, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO LAND AT THE FRANKLIN COUNTY AIRPORT, LOUISBURG, NC, FOLLOWING TWO RADAR APPROACHES AND TWO INSTRUMENT APPROACHES DUE TO THE LOW CLOUDS AND VISIBILITY. HE THEN DIVERTED TO RALEIGH-DURHAM AIRPORT FOR AN INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM APPROACH. ACCORDING TO RECORDED RADAR DATA, THE FLIGHT PATH OF THE AIRCRAFT DEVIATED FROM SIDE TO SIDE OF THE LOCALIZER COURSE CENTERLINE FOR MOST OF THE APPROACH. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE TERRAIN APPROXIMATELY 1/2 MILE NORTHEAST OF THE APPROACH END OF RUNWAY 23L AT APPROXIMATELY 400 FEET MSL. THE DECISION HEIGHT FOR THE ILS RUNWAY 23L APPROACH IS 636 FEET MSL.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow proper IFR procedures by descending below the decision height. Factors relating to the accident were the weather conditions and the dark night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95FA128
- Event ID
- 20001207X03854
- Case number
- ATL95FA128
- 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: 460c21ca5cc8e4dda61425463840832b6775b7935e040cb5298c6f7514046066; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:43:00.428Z.