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ATL93LA081 · Cessna 421B

15 Apr 1993 · Fort Payne, AL, United States

Southern Airways Cessna 421B · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff

From Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (DKX) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ATL93LA081
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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Cessna 421B

Aircraft type
Cessna 421
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
N14A
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (DKX), Knoxville, TNTo not recorded
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
Takeoff
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 terrain/water
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

  • Landing gear › Overload
  • Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A DOWNDRAFT AT LIFTOFF, DURING THE INITIAL TAKEOFF, WHICH RESULTED IN THE AIRPLANE SETTLING BACK ON THE RUNWAY. HE ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT, SINCE THERE WAS NO INDICATION OF A LANDING GEAR PROBLEM. DURING THE TOUCHDOWN PHASE OF THE APPROACH, AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT, THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR AND NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION DISCLOSED OVERLOAD STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN THE RIGHT WHEEL WELL AND TO THE RIGHT WING CONSISTENT WITH DAMAGE SUSTAINED DURING A HARD LANDING.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO COMPENSATE FOR WINDS DURING THE INITIAL TAKEOFF THAT RESULTED IN THE AIRPLANE COLLIDING WITH THE RUNWAY, EXCEEDING THE DESIGN LIMITS OF THE AIRCRAFT AND UPON LANDING AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT, THE COLLAPSE OF THE MAIN LANDING GEAR.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL93LA081
Event ID
20001211X12073
Case number
ATL93LA081
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: 948ebc14ab82096e9f418e5379b2d0fe62a2a41d37c7df39c33106f48d561e66; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:11:29.513Z.