ATL93FA026 · Piper PA-28R-180
Piper PA-28R-180 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From 6A3 · Andrews, NC to Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (OCF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA026
- 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-180
- 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
- N7684J
- Operator
- Keller, Michael T. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 6A3 · Andrews, NCTo Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (OCF), Ocala, FL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED THREE WEATHER BRIEFINGS AT VARIOUS POINTS THROUGHOUT THE PREFLIGHT, FLIGHT AND PRIOR TO THE FINAL DEPARTURE FROM ANDREWS, NORTH CAROLINA. EACH BRIEFING NOTED INSTRUMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS ALONG THE PILOT'S ROUTE OF FLIGHT. ADDITIONALLY, THE PILOT REQUESTED AND WAS GIVEN A RADAR ASSIST INTO ANDREWS MURPHY AIRPORT, FROM ATLANTA CENTER, ABOUT AN HOUR BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. AFTER REFUELING WITH 16 GALLONS OF AVIATION FUEL, THE PILOT DEPARTED ANDREWS MURPHY AIRPORT AND CLIMBED TO ABOUT 6600 FEET. ATLANTA CENTER RADAR RECORDED AN AIRBORNE TARGET CIRCLING IN THE VICINITY OF THE ACCIDENT SITE AT 6600 FEET. HIKERS ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAILS RECALLED HEARING AN AIRPLANE IN THE VICINITY OF THE ACCIDENT SITE AT THE APPROXIMATE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THEY ALSO REPORTED THAT FORWARD VISIBILITY WAS REDUCED TO ABOUT 50 YARDS WITH MODERATE RAIN. A FOREST RANGER REPORTED THAT WINDS WERE GUSTING TO ABOUT 45 MPH. NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WERE DISCOVERED DURING THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DECISION TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS WHICH RESULTED IN THE INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH HIGH TERRAIN. FACTORS WERE HIGH WIND AND RAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA026
- Event ID
- 20001211X15982
- Case number
- ATL93FA026
- 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: 4156fbff573c5e6c7a7666db5b76bc25bc3882b4338625841134b9489fb49e9e; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:49:01.601Z.