MIA98FA101 · Piper PA-28-180D
Piper PA-28-180D · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA) to Twin Lakes Airport (8A7)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA98FA101
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-180D
- 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
- N7826N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA), Chattanooga, TNTo Twin Lakes Airport (8A7)
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The passenger stated that as the flight turned onto final approach to land on runway 27, he was blinded and disoriented by the sun which was directly down, and just above the runway. He then realized he was looking at the sun and runway through tree branches. The aircraft collided with the trees and then crashed to the ground. Neither he nor the pilot were wearing sunglasses or using the aircraft's sun visors. Postcrash examination of the aircraft structure, flight controls, engine, and propeller showed no evidence of precrash failure or malfunction. At the time and location of the accident, the sun was at an altitude of 3.3 degrees on a bearing of 268.3 degrees.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper planned visual approach and glide path in diminished visual conditions due to sun-glare and his delayed go-around resulting in the aircraft colliding with trees on final approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA98FA101
- Event ID
- 20001211X09731
- Case number
- MIA98FA101
- 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: 90e5e7251180e1a5d77f86ba3a317104df3127f81cf59bd04741019362e0724a; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:39:36.201Z.