ATL92FA047 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92FA047
- 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-28R-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N33464
- Operator
- Stout, Garland H. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh, 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 · IFR final 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Raleigh, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT FLIGHT RULES (IFR) FLIGHT HAD BEEN CLEARED FOR AN INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM (ILS) APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT. THERE WERE LOW CEILINGS AND FOG AT THE AIRPORT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. EXAMINATION OF THE RADAR DATA COLLECTED DURING THE TIME OF THE APPROACH, SHOWED THE AIRCRAFT HEADING VARYING NUMEROUS TIMES FROM ONE SIDE OF THE APPROACH TO THE OTHER. THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND IN A WOODED AREA APPROXIMATELY ONE MILE FROM THE AIRPORT, ON THE CENETERLINE FOR THE ILS. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THAT THE NAVIGATIONAL INSTRUMENTS ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT WERE OPERATING WITHIN FACTORY SPECIFICATIONS. EXAMINATION OF THE INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM AT THE AIRPORT REVEALED THAT THE SYSTEM WAS OPERATING WITHIN SPECIFICATIONS.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW INSTRUMENT LANDING PROCEDURES BY DESCENDING BELOW THE GLIDE PATH OF THE INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LOW CEILINGS AND FOG AT THE AIRPORT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92FA047
- Event ID
- 20001211X14067
- Case number
- ATL92FA047
- 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 1992-02-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 690e1231489a955dd9c0a88cfb5919d3ddd5f01a11bcce89068f6585dc3ea420; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:21:38.731Z.