ATL89FA139 · Beech B24R
Beech B24R · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From 4A7 · Hampton, GA to Lumpkin County Wimpys Airport (9A0)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA139
- 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
- 5 · 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
Beech B24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 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
- N2526W
- Operator
- Johnny H. Ward · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4A7 · Hampton, GATo Lumpkin County Wimpys Airport (9A0), Dahlonega, 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
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT HAD RECEIVED HIS PVT CERTIFICATE 3 DAYS BEFORE THE ACDNT. ABOUT 1 HR AFTER RECEIVING A WX BRIEFING, HE TOOK OFF FROM HAMPTON, GA, ON A FLT TO DAHLONEGA, GA. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES & CRASHED ABOUT 2 MI NW OF THE DESTN ARPT. THE ACDNT SITE WAS ON THE EAST SLOPE OF A MTN. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT IMPACT OCCURRED WHILE THE ACFT WAS IN LEVEL FLT. WRECKAGE WAS SCATTERED OVER A 225' AREA. FRESHLY BROKEN LIMBS WITH PROP SLASH MARKS WERE FND WHERE THE ACFT INITIALLY IMPACTED TREES. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FND DURING THE INVESTIGATION. RPRTDLY, MARGINAL WX CONDITIONS EXISTED WITH LOW CEILINGS & REDUCED VISIBILITY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CLEARANCE ABOVE THE WOODED TERRAIN. THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITION, HIGH TERRAIN, AND TREES WERE RELATED FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA139
- Event ID
- 20001213X28024
- Case number
- ATL89FA139
- 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: 579963de9b75cb1c41483771c1abe55621fd46aa1002a853408a90953a700795; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:20:18.860Z.