ATL93LA023 · Bede Aircraft BD-5B
Bede Aircraft BD-5B · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From 8A1 to Cartersville Airport (VPC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93LA023
- 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
Bede Aircraft BD-5B
- Aircraft type
- Bede BD-5
- 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
- N84EJ
- Operator
- Johnson, Edward H., JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 8A1To Cartersville Airport (VPC), Cartersville, 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
- 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
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LIFT OFF FROM THE RUNWAY, AT ABOUT SIX TO EIGHT FEET, THE LANDING GEAR WAS RETRACTED & THE NOSE OF THE AIRPLANE PITCHED DOWN. THE AIRPLANE IS EQUIPPED WITH A SIDE STICK CONTROLLER & A MANUALLY ACTUATED LANDING GEAR. THE LANDING GEAR HANDLE IS LOCATED FORWARD OF THE PILOT IN THE CENTER OF THE FLOOR, BETWEEN THE PILOT'S LEGS, & IS PULLED AFT TO RETRACT THE GEAR. THE BOTTOM OF THE AIRPLANE CONTACTED THE RUNWAY WHICH SEPARATED THE OIL COOLER SCOOP. THE PILOT THEN ENTERED A RIGHT HAND TRAFFIC PATTERN. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, AS THE AIRPLANE WAS TURNED FROM THE BASE TO FINAL LEG IT STALLED ABRUPTLY, ROLLED LEFT MORE THAN ONCE, AND BEGAN A VERTICAL DIVE TO IMPACT. POST CRASH EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED FIRE DAMAGE AND CONTINUITY OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS. THE PILOT'S HANDBOOK INDICATES THAT AN ACCELERATED STALL WILL RESULT IN A LEFT ROLL. IT ALSO STATES THAT A STALL BUFFET WILL OCCUR ABOUT 72 MPH. THE LOG BOOK FOR N84EJ NOTED THAT THE AIRPLANE HAD A CLEAN STALL SPEED OF 80 MPH, & A STALL SPEED OF 85 MPH IN A 60 DEGREE ONE 'G' RIGHT TURN.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT STALL OF THE AIRPLANE, DURING THE BASE TO FINAL TURN, AT TOO LOW AN ALTITUDE TO EFFECT RECOVERY. FACTORS WERE THE IMPROPER LIFT OFF, WHICH RESULTED IN THE AIRPLANE RE CONTACTING THE RUNWAY AFTER LIFT OFF, AND SERVED TO DISTRACT THE PILOT DURING THE TURN TO THE FINAL APPROACH COURSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93LA023
- Event ID
- 20001211X15986
- Case number
- ATL93LA023
- 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: d5e04f08ebd3639f773c8fbef4df2b5a85e482825ae85dc2d29ea8c063474a85; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:49:44.863Z.