ATL91FA047 · Piper PA-24-260
Piper PA-24-260 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Mallards Landing Airport (GA04) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91FA047
- 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
- 3 · 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
Piper PA-24-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N9209P
- Operator
- Carter, Richard C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mallards Landing Airport (GA04), Locust Grove, GATo not recorded
- 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
- 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 › Proper alignment, not attained
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND TWO PASSENGERS WERE FLYING TO AN AIRPORT TO PICK UP A FRIEND. NIGHT VMC PREVAILED. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE FLYING AT ABOUT 300 FT AGL AT VARIOUS POSITIONS OVER THE CITY, VARYING HEADINGS, AND SOMETIMES CIRCLING. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT THE PILOT 'SEEMED LIKE HE DIDN'T KNOW WHERE HE WAS GOING.' THE AIRPLANE THEN PROCEEDED TOWARD THE MIDFIELD POINT OF THE AIRPORT ON A NORTHERLY HEADING. IT COLLIDED WITH PINE TREES, THEN FELL INTO THE ROOF OF A CHURCH LOCATED 150 FEET FARTHER NORTH. THE AIRCRAFT, AND CHURCH, WERE DESTROYED BY FIRE. THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS FOUND IN THE 'LEFT AUX' TANK POSITION; HOWEVER, AUX TANKS WERE TO BE USED IN LEVEL FLIGHT ONLY. ACTUATOR SETTINGS INDICATED THE GEAR WAS DOWN & THE FLAPS WERE UP. PROP SIGNATURES INDICATED PROP ROTATION IN A POWER PRODUCING MODE AT IMPACT. THE RUNWAY LIGHTS FOR RWY 9/27 WERE ON AT THE TIME, AND THE AIRCRAFT'S NORTHERLY HEADING WAS NOT ALIGNED WITH ANY RUNWAY. THE LOCATION OF THE AIRPORT DID NOT REQUIRE THE CITY TO BE OVERFLOWN.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ATTAIN PROPER RUNWAY ALIGNMENT AND TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE. RELATED FACTORS WERE: DARKNESS AND THE PILOT BECOMING LOST/DISORIENTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91FA047
- Event ID
- 20001212X16398
- Case number
- ATL91FA047
- 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 1991-02-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6faca015a7bad6ce8674a7f35f656fe60fb71b6998a34fa310cc068393467afa; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:59:14.942Z.