ATL89FA171 · Dassault-Breguet FALCON 20
Dassault-Breguet FALCON 20 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From 6A0 to Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA171
- 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
- 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
Dassault-Breguet FALCON 20
- Aircraft type
- Dassault Breguet FALCON 20
- 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
- N125CA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 6A0To Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM), Montgomery, 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
- Takeoff
- 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); Electrical tower
- 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 › Climb, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CREW ARRIVED AT THE ARPT ABOUT 20 MIN BEFORE THE PLANNED MIDNIGHT TAKEOFF TIME, AFTER THE PLT-IN-COMMAND HAD SPENT THE DAY MOVING FURNITURE. A NGT WATCHMAN NOTED THAT THE PREFLT INSPN & TAKEOFF ROLL TO ROTATION/LIFT-OFF WAS NORMAL. THERE WAS NO POST-TAKEOFF RADIO CALL TO EITHER UNICOM OR ATC, ATHOUGH THE CREW HAD FILED AN IFR FLT PLAN. AFTER TAKING OFF FROM RWY 36, THE ACFT CRASHED ABOUT 1.8 MI NORTH OF THE RWY. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND AFTER INTERRUPTIONOF ELECTRICAL POWER TO A NEARBY CITY. INITIAL IMPACT WAS WITH TREES, WHILE IN A SHALLOW/LEFT/DESCENDING TURN. AN AREA OF TREES ABOUT 1/2 MI LONG WAS DAMAGED BY IMPACT & FIRE. BEFORE COMING TO REST, THE ACFT HIT A POWERLINE SUPPORT TOWER. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE ACFT WAS TRAVELING AT ABOUT 260 KTS, WHEN IT CRASHED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACDNT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND (PIC) TO ASSURE THAT THE AIRCRAFT MAINTAINED A CLIMB PROFILE AFTER TAKEOFF. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARK NIGHT, THE CREW'S LACK OF VISUAL PERCEPTION AT NIGHT, THE PIC'S LACK OF REST (FATIGUE), AND THE COPILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN REMEDIAL ACTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA171
- Event ID
- 20001213X28488
- Case number
- ATL89FA171
- 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: a5c246c7c5d8669df653a6392a7434a97d476aa78dbf39e11f76009af4555d92; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:15:48.007Z.