IAD99FA020 · Burgess RV-6
Burgess RV-6 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Brunswick Golden Isles Airport (BQK) to Lee Airport (ANP)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD99FA020
- 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
Burgess RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Burgess RV-6
- 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
- N956DB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brunswick Golden Isles Airport (BQK), Brunswick, GATo Lee Airport (ANP), Annapolis, MD
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While descending for a landing at night, the airplane struck trees initially before it impacted in Beard's Creek. There were several witnesses who heard an airplane over fly their homes at a low altitude, but they did not see the airplane. One of the witnesses reported that it was dark, and she heard an airplane engine sputtering, and a 'loud crackling sound' in what she stated sounded like an airplane hitting trees. Another witness said he saw an airplane flying just above the trees near to the airport. He felt that the airplane was 'extremely low.' Tree imprints were found on the leading edge of both wings. The airplane's left wingtip was found below the severed trees. Search efforts located the airplane, about 0300, the following morning in Beard's creek. The airplane came to rest inverted in about 18 feet of water, and 4 feet of mud about 1/4 mile off mile off the extended centerline of runway 30. The engine was test run and it operated satisfactory. Examination of the airplane did not disclose any evidence of mechanical malfunction. According to the pilot's log book there was no record to indicate that he had flown to this airport. Toxicological testing revealed the following drugs: Cimetidine detected in Urine; Sildenafil detected in Liver Fluid; Sildenafil Metabolite detected in Urine; 10 (ug/ml, ug/g) Theophylline detected in Urine.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate altitude/clearance from the trees. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's unfamiliarity with the geographic location and dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD99FA020
- Event ID
- 20001211X11435
- Case number
- IAD99FA020
- 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: 2faddc03e27964240eb702c1df776d6bd880e096c3d0f8bcd92da9b5ca9c67c7; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:19:08.589Z.