ATL99FA020 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From FTV · FAYETTVILLE, TN to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL99FA020
- 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
- 0 · 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
Cessna 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N92KK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FTV · FAYETTVILLE, TNTo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), CHAROLETTE, NC
- 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 turn to base
- 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
- Wire, transmission; 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot unsuccessfully executed six instrument approaches; five at Charlotte, NC and the last approach to the Concord Regional Airport, NC. After the fourth approach, the pilot reported he was low on fuel and that he had gyro problems. The pilot diverted to Concord where the weather was reportedly better. While conducting the missed approach for the ILS Runway 20 approach to Concord Regional Airport, the pilot reported that he saw the lights from a nearby truck stop. Air traffic control then advised the pilot that the airport was at his twelve-thirty position. The airplane subsequently collided with 45-foot high utility lines, and trees, about one-quarter mile northwest of the airport. Examination of the airplane did not disclose evidence of mechanical malfunction.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight decision and his failure to maintain clearance during approach that resulted in collision with utility lines. Related factors were dark night, trees and low ceilings.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL99FA020
- Event ID
- 20001211X11360
- Case number
- ATL99FA020
- 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 1998-11-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 69b64719ac68cce33c3efe62e599b932bbe4d31bbd1895fce272e06b65a4aaae; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:18:52.749Z.