MIA99FA034 · Piper PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301 · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU) to Olive Branch Airport (OLV)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99FA034
- 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-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N83396
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU), Decatur, ALTo Olive Branch Airport (OLV)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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 › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While executing a localizer/dme approach, the pilot executed a missed approach before the missed approach point and advised the controller, 'we was look like we just about had it there ah I think I'd like to try it one more time to see if we can make it.' The flight was cleared for the second localizer/dme approach and the airplane remained at 2,400 feet msl, for 1.3 miles past the FAF, then descended to only 1,400 feet at the missed approach point. The airplane continued to descend from that point to where the airplane was lost from radar .8 nautical mile past the departure end of the runway. The airplane collided with trees, the ground, and came to rest with both wings separated. Post accident examination of the engine, and flight controls revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction. A non-TSO'd altimeter was found in the airplane which when tested, revealed no discrepancies. Weather observation taken 3 minutes before the accident at the Memphis International Airport, located 10.9 nautical miles from the accident airport, indicates an overcast ceiling at 300 feet with visibility of 4 statute miles mist.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow IFR procedures when he descended below the published minimum descent altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99FA034
- Event ID
- 20001211X11473
- Case number
- MIA99FA034
- 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 1998-11-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7291a3ad99b2d9f225415b68a39da38408ccf12ef59c7b55dc99b731524899aa; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:19:19.992Z.