ATL91FA040 · Rockwell 114
Rockwell 114 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From George M Bryan Airport (STF) to 2A3 · Bessemer, AL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91FA040
- 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
- 4 · 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
Rockwell 114
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell 114
- 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
- N4827W
- Operator
- Frank, Randal W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From George M Bryan Airport (STF), Starkville, MSTo 2A3 · Bessemer, AL
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS CLEARED FOR THE RUNWAY FIVE APPROACH. CURRENT WEATHER HAD BEEN ISSUED WHICH INCLUDED THE ALTIMETER SETTING FOR BIRMINGHAM. NO MECHANICAL PROBLEM HAD BEEN REPORTED AND THE FLIGHT APPEARED NORMAL. THE LAST RADAR HIT INDICATED THAT THE FLIGHT WAS AT 1300 FEET EARLY IN THE APPROACH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED ABOUT FOUR MILES SOUTHWEST OF THE AIRPORT. IMPACT OCCURRED WITH THE TOPS OF TREES THAT WERE IN A VALLEY ABOUT 200 FEET BELOW THE AIRPORT ELEVATION. WRECKAGE WAS SCATTERED OVER A 350 FOOT AREA AND DIAGONAL SLASH MARKS WERE FOUND ON TREE LIMBS THROUGHOUT THE AREA. THE AIRPORT ELEVATION WAS 699 FEET. MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (MDA) FOR THE APPROACH WAS 1260 FEET. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW INSTRUMENT FLIGHT RULES (IFR) AND MAINTAIN THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (MDA) DURING THE VOR APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS AND THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91FA040
- Event ID
- 20001212X16257
- Case number
- ATL91FA040
- 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 1991-01-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: caac3cd909adc731179ca136fef372b965073e439a659c822424aaee38b25740; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:00:13.512Z.