ATL89LA185 · Cessna 172K
Brunswick Flight Service Cessna 172K · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From 55W · Wilmington, NC to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA185
- 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
- 0 · 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
Cessna 172K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N7444G
- Operator
- Brunswick Flight Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 55W · Wilmington, 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 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS CONDUCTING NIGHT LANDINGS AT A PRIVATE AIRSTRIP. THE RUNWAY ONLY HAS ONE SET OF EDGE LIGHTS, LOCATED ON THE EAST SIDE. THE PILOT TURNED BASE TO FINAL AND LINED UP ON CENTER WITH THE LIGHTS. THE PILOT REALIZED THE MISALIGNMENT AFTER CORSSING THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD AND ATTEMPTED TO CORRECT BY BANKING. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A VEHICLE PARKED BETWEEN THE RUNWAY EDGE LIGHTS.
Probable cause
THE INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION/PLANNING BY THE PILOT REGARDING THE UNIQUE LIGHT FEATURES ON RUNWAY 18 (LIGHTS MOUNTED ALONG THE EAST SIDE ONLY). IN ADDITION THE PILOT FAILED TO ALIGN THE AIRPLANE WITH THE RUNWAY AND STRUCK A VEHICLE THAT WAS PARKED BETWEEN THE LIGHTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA185
- Event ID
- 20001213X28727
- Case number
- ATL89LA185
- 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 1989-07-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a2beb3aee3dd0e210c17d50ea2c73d08d53ac3fd752e718bb615075bba1fe80e; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:21:40.419Z.