ATL93FA082 · American AA-1A
American AA-1A and Cessna 414A · Accident: midair collision during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA082
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · American AA-1A
- Aircraft type
- American AA-1
- 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
- N9317L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Statesboro Bulloch County Airport (TBR)To Statesboro Bulloch County Airport (TBR)
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 414A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 414
- 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
- N47WD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 49J · Hilton Head, SCTo Statesboro Bulloch County Airport (TBR)
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT PILOT IN AMERICAN AA-1A, N9317L, WAS ON AN APPROACH TO LAND ON RUNWAY 5 OF THE UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT, AS A COMMERCIAL PILOT IN CESSNA 414A, N47WD, WAS ON AN APPROACH TO LAND ON RUNWAY 14. THE TWO RUNWAYS INTERSECTED NEAR THEIR APPROACH ENDS. THE TWO AIRCRAFT COLLIDED AS THEY WERE ABOUT TO TOUCH DOWN AT DUSK OVER THE INTERSECTION. WITNESSES ON THE GROUND STATED THAT THEY OBSERVED LIGHTS ON THE CESSNA, BUT DID NOT OBSERVE ANY LIGHTS ON THE AMERICAN. WITNESSES IN OTHER AIRCRAFT IN THE AREA STATED THAT THEY HEARD THE PILOT OF THE AMERICAN ANOUNCING HIS POSITION IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AND LANDING INTENTIONS, BUT DID NOT HEAR THE PILOT OF THE CESSNA ON THE UNICOM FREQUENCY. THE PILOT OF THE CESSNA STATED THAT HE ANNOUNCED HIS INTENTION TO LAND ON RUNWAY 14 OVER UNICOM FREQUENCY 123.0. THE PUBLISHED UNICOM FREQUENCY FOR THE STATESBORO AIRPORT WAS 122.8.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PILOTS OF BOTH AIRCRAFT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: FAILURE OF THE PILOT OF N9317L TO ILLUMINATE HIS AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION LIGHTS, AND IMPROPER RADIO COMMUNICATIONS BY THE PILOT OF N47WD BY SELECTING THE WRONG UNICOM FREQUENCY TO MONITOR AND ANNOUNCE HIS LANDING INTENTIONS AND POSITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA082
- Event ID
- 20001211X12059
- Case number
- ATL93FA082
- 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 1993-04-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 827331dee7755bc74e4bed53832ce62c660104d51aa772990ff11832c595da51; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:35:47.790Z.