ATL91FA035 · Beech B95
Beech B95 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From 21A · Alabaster, AL to Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91FA035
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech B95
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 95
- 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
- N2794Y
- Operator
- Luther, Mark · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 21A · Alabaster, ALTo Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY), Atlanta, 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
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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; 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Austell, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD COMPLETED FOUR INSTRUMENT PROCEDURES TO FULTON COUNTY AIRPORT, AND WAS UNABLE TO LAND DUE TO LOW CEILINGS. WEATHER CONDITIONS IN THE ATLANTA AREA WERE POOR; HOWEVER ACCORDING TO APPROACH CONTROL, OTHER AIRPLANES HAD LANDED AT DEKALB-PEACHTREE AIRPORT (PDK). THE PILOT WAS INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ATTEMPTING AN APPROACH INTO PDK; HE ELECTED TO EXECUTE ANOTHER APPROACH INTO FULTON COUNTY. DURING THE FIFTH APPROACH, THE PILOT REPORTED AN UNSPECIFIED LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE AIRPLANE STALLED, CRASHED, AND BURNED SHORT OF RUNWAY 8. THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION FAILED TO INDICATE A MECHANIAL PROBLEM. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED ON A DARK NIGHT UNDER INSTRUMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER WHICH RESULTED FROM THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY USE THE CARBURETOR HEAT. THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED DURING THE EMERGENCY DESCENT WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL ON FINAL APPROACH. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS WEATHER CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO CARBURETOR ICING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91FA035
- Event ID
- 20001212X24716
- Case number
- ATL91FA035
- 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 1990-12-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2686591982d2abdf6dbfa760f3bf704d83348c223c9dab8e94ff64d8a0a46127; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:02:22.122Z.