ATL92LA156 · Cessna 441
Air Travel Services Cessna 441 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL) to Nashville International Airport (BNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92LA156
- 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 441
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 441
- 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
- N920C
- Operator
- Air Travel Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL)To Nashville International Airport (BNA), Nashville, TN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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 › Checklist, not followed
- Pilot in command › Gear retraction, not performed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Raising of flaps, not performed
- Pilot in command › Wrong engine shutdown, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gainesville, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKEOFF, HE HAD A COLLISION WITH A FLIGHT OF BIRDS. HE STATED THAT THE RIGHT ENGINE IMMEDIATELY HAD A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER. HE STATED THAT HE DID NOT ATTEMPT TO RAISE THE LANDING GEAR NOR THE FLAPS FOLLOWING THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER, AND THE AIRCRAFT WOULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT ENGINES REVEALED THAT THERE WAS ROTATIONAL SCRATCHING OF THE TURBINE HOUSINGS ON THE RIGHT ENGINE, AND NO ROTATIONAL SCRATCHING ON THE TURBINE HOUSING OF THE LEFT ENGINE.
Probable cause
THE POOR INFLIGHT DECISION BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND IN THAT AFTER A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER, HE SHUT DOWN THE WRONG ENGINE, DID NOT FOLLOW THE EMERGENCY CHECKLIST, DID NOT RAISE THE FLAPS, AND DID NOT RETRACT THE LANDING GEAR. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH BIRDS DURING THE TAKEOFF CLIMB.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92LA156
- Event ID
- 20001211X15320
- Case number
- ATL92LA156
- 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: 9c8a76ef832cb36f1a209fced841fb6b6e100c1c0ef7243cb379555ed448b7a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:48:55.495Z.