ATL87FA082 · Beech K35
Beech K35 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) to Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA082
- 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 K35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N621M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh, NCTo Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NC
- 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 · circling (IFR)
- 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)
- 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 › Weather evaluation, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT DEPARTED CHARLESTON, SC FOR RALEIGH EARLIER IN THE DAY. WHILE AT RALEIGH HE DISCUSSED PENDING LEGISLATION WITH ASSOC. HE DEPARTED RALEIGH ABOUT 2228 EST IN WX OF INDEF 100 AND 1/2 MILE VISIBILITY. HIS DESTINATION WAS FORECAST TO HAVE OCCASIONAL CEILINGS OF 200 OVERCAST AND 1/4 MILE VISIBIITY IN FOG. APPROACHING ASHEVILLE HE ASKED FOR A PIREP ON ASHEVILLE. ATLANTA CENTER GAVE THE LATEST WEATHER AS 500 SCATTERED, MEASURED 1100 OVERCAST, VISIBILITY ONE MILE IN LIGHTDRIZZLE AND FOG. THE PLT WAS CLEARED FOR AN ILS TO RUNWAY 34. THE EXISTING WEATHER WAS 400 OVERCAST, 2 MILES VISIBILITY.THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TREES ABOUT A MILE NORTH OF THE AIRPORT ON A HEADING OF 014. PILOT DID NOT ACTIVATE APPROACH LIGHTS FOR RUNWAY 34.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA082
- Event ID
- 20001213X30357
- Case number
- ATL87FA082
- 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 1987-03-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7c91f594794e021a3e83d9bf924b9f5d6d84e9c511cbe36ab57bcfee28366838; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:12:24.480Z.