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ATL90FA001 · Beech C90

1 Oct 1989 · Chamblee, GA, United States

Beech C90 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK) to Orlando Executive Airport (ORL)

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Event

NTSB case
ATL90FA001
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Beech C90

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 90
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
N43GT
Operator
Roy Beatty
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), Chamblee, GATo Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FL
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
En route · climb to cruise
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
Airframe, component or system failure
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

  • Flight/nav instruments › Undetermined
  • Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AFTER TAKING OFF, THE PLT ESTABLISHED RADIO CONTACT WITH DEP CTL & RPRTD A DIRECTIONAL GYRO PROBLEM. SECONDS LATER, HE RPRTD THAT HE WAS LOSING ALL INSTRUMENTS. DEP CTL ATTEMPTED TO PROVIDE NO-GYRO VECTORS. THE PLT WAS INSTRUCTED TO MAKE A FREQ CHANGE. SOON THEREAFTER, RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST & THE ACFT CRASHED. BEFORE CRASHING THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED IN A ROLLING ATTITUDE. WRECKAGE WAS FOUND SCATTERED OVER A 600' BY 150' AREA. AN EXAM REVEALED THE RIGHT WING HAD SEPD IN FLT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE RIGHT WING HAD FAILED IN AN UPWARD (POSITIVE) DRCTN. THE PLT'S ATTITUDE GYRO WAS DAMAGED DURING IMPACT, BUT NO ROTATIONAL DAMAGE WAS NOTED. THE PLT'S ATTITUDE INDCR & COPLT'S TURN INDCR WERE AIR DRIVEN, THE PLT'S TURN INDCR WAS DC POWERED & THE COPLT'S ATTITUDE INDCR WAS AC POWERED. THE MAINTENANCE LOG DID NOT HAVE A CURRENT STATIC/ALTIMETER & TRANSPONDER CHECK.

Probable cause

MALFUNCTION OF ONE OR MORE FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON, FAILUE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT WITH PARTIAL PANEL INSTRUMENTS AFTER BECOMING SPATIALLY DISORIENTED, AND HIS EXCEEDING THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRCRAFT. THE WEATHER (LOW CEILING) AND MALFUNCTIONING DIRECTIONAL GYRO WERE RELATED FACTORS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL90FA001
Event ID
20001213X29520
Case number
ATL90FA001
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: d4f4945316a6590d9da6d328f46ce4239c73f484738077b4c29ead67a412530f; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:07:42.860Z.