ATL93FA004 · Aero Commander 680
Aero Commander 680 · Accident: on ground/water encounter with weather while taxiing
From 0J6 to Sylvester Airport (SYV)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA004
- 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
- 1 · 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
Aero Commander 680
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 680
- 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
- N4490
- Operator
- Benson, William L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 0J6To Sylvester Airport (SYV), Sylvester, GA
- 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
- Taxi
- 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
- On ground/water encounter with weather
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Taxispeed, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE OWNER, HE AND THE PILOT HAD FLOWN FROM ALBANY, GEORGIA TO SWAP A PIPER 28 FOR THE AERO COMMANDER 680. PRIOR TO COMPLETING THE TRADE, THE PREVIOUS OWNER RECONSTRUCTED A SET OF AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE LOGS WHICH REVEALED THE ESTIMATED TOTAL AIRFRAME TIME AND ENGINE SERIAL NUMBERS. THE OWNER ASSUMED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS AIRWORTHY. SINCE THE PILOT WAS NOT AERO COMMANDER RATED, THEY DECIDED TO TAXI THE AIRPLANE ON THE RAMP AND RUNWAY TO GAIN SOME EXPERIENCE. WHILE TAXIING AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED ON RUNWAY 09, THE OWNER REPORTED THAT A GUST OF WIND CAUGHT THE AIRPLANE AS THE TAXI SPEED APPROACHED 65 MPH. THE PILOT LOST CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AS IT BECAME AIRBORNE. THE AIRPLANE ROTATED TO THE RIGHT AND THE RIGHT WING STRUCK THE GROUND; THE AIRPLANE CARTWHEELED TO A STOP FACING THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION FAILED TO DISCLOSE A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. REPORTEDLY, THE PILOT COMPLETED A PREFLIGHT BUT, THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION DISCOVERED A LARGE BIRD'S NEST IN THE SUMP AREA OF THE LEFT ENGINE AND A MISSING EXHAUST MANIFOLD. THE PILOT WAS NOT MULITIENGINE RATED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE WHILE CONDUCTING A HIGH SPEED TAXI MANEUVER WHICH RESULTED IN INADVERTENT FLIGHT. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S OVER CONFIDENCE IN HIS ABILITY, HIS LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRPLANE AND THE WIND GUST.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA004
- Event ID
- 20001211X15802
- Case number
- ATL93FA004
- 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: 1b066291212a9fc9837b6c6ad7e98a6c5a29b12591a3b0bbd8cac9daf70183d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:52:23.581Z.