MIA97FA232 · Beech 200
Beech 200 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Athens Ben Epps Airport (AHN) to Dalton Municipal Airport (DNN)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97FA232
- 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 200
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 200
- 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
- N74EJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Athens Ben Epps Airport (AHN), Athens, GATo Dalton Municipal Airport (DNN)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Dalton, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was cleared for a localizer approach by Atlanta Center & told to maintain 5,000 ft until crossing the final approach fix (FAF). Normal altitude at the FAF was 2,700 ft. The pilot was unable to land from this approach & performed a missed approach. He was handed off to Chattanooga Approach, then was cleared to cross the FAF at 3,000 ft & perform another localizer approach. About 1 mile from the FAF, the pilot was told to change to the airport advisory frequency. The pilot acknowledged, then there was no further communication with the aircraft. A short time later, witnesses heard the aircraft crash near the approach end of the runway. Examination of the crash site showed the aircraft had touched down in a grass area about 1,100 ft from the end of the runway, while on the localizer. Propeller slash marks showed both engines were operating at approach power & the aircraft was at approach speed. No evidence of precrash mechanical failure or malfunction of the aircraft structure, flight controls, systems, engines, or propellers was found. The 0621 weather was in part: 300 ft overcast & 1/2 mile visibility with fog. Minimum descent altitude (MDA) for the localizer approach was 1,180 ft msl; airport elevation was 710 ft. The pilot had flown 8 flight hrs, was on duty for 13.6 hrs the day before the accident, was off duty for about 6 hrs, & had about 4 hrs of sleep before the accident flight.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper IFR procedure, by failing to maintain the minimum descent altitude (MDA) during the ILS localizer approach, until the runway environment was in sight, which resulted in a collision with terrain short of the runway. Factors relating to the accident were: darkness, low ceiling, fog, pilot fatigue, and improper scheduling by the aircraft operator.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97FA232
- Event ID
- 20001208X08699
- Case number
- MIA97FA232
- 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: 4521c787976c433206ab81a79294ce77ad09354eec5bca03f33ab7b457f30fff; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:51:26.617Z.