Dolphin Aviation Government Aircraft Fact (GAF) N24A accident
Government Aircraft Fact (GAF) N24A · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90FA108
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Government Aircraft Fact (GAF) N24A
- Aircraft type
- Government Aircraft Fact (gaf) N24
- 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
- N418NE
- Operator
- Dolphin Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh, NCTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · circling (IFR)
- 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
- 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 altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wilmington, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING ARRIVAL, THE PLT MADE AN ILS LOCALIZER BACKCOURSE APCH TO RWY 16 & WAS CLEARED TO LAND. HE RPRTD HE WAS INITIATING A MISSED APCH. APRX 10 SECONDS LATER, HE RPRTD THE RWY IN SIGHT & REQUESTED A VISUAL APCH TO LAND ON RWY 34. THE PLT WAS CLEARED TO LAND & THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO MANEUVER TO THE RIGHT (WEST OF THE RWY), THEN TURN BACK LEFT TO A FINAL APCH. HOWEVER, IT CRASHED SHORT OF RWY 35. AN EXAM OF THE CRASH SITE REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT THE ACFT WAS IN A NORMAL UPRIGHT ATTITUDE ON A HEADING OF 340 DEG, WHEN IT CRASHED. INITIAL IMPACT WAS WITH THE APCH LIGHTING SYSTEM SHORT OF RWY 34. A KING-AIR PLT, WHO LANDED ON RWY 16 BEFORE THE ACDNT, ESTIMATED THE CLOUD BASES WERE ABOUT 400' AGL. MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) FOR THE BACKCOURSE APCH WAS 460' MSL. MDA FOR A CIRCLING APCH TO RWY 16 WAS 550' MSL. THE ARPT ELEVATION WAS 32'.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE DURING A CIRCLING MANEUVER FOR LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: WEATHER CONDITIONS BELOW MINIMUMS FOR A CIRCLING APPROACH, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW IFR PROCEDURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90FA108
- Event ID
- 20001212X23057
- Case number
- ATL90FA108
- 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: b736c99805ccbf414bfbb65af79db7f966e7858426e76300a0f10b4ac74253f0; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:06:22.408Z.