ATL87LA146 · Consolidated Aeronautics Inc. LAKE LA-4-200 LAKE LA-4-
Consolidated Aeronautics Inc. LAKE LA-4-200 LAKE LA-4- · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY) to Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA146
- 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
Consolidated Aeronautics Inc. LAKE LA-4-200 LAKE LA-4-
- Aircraft type
- Consolidated Aeronautics LAKE LA-4-200
- 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
- N8543A
- Operator
- Skelton,homer D · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY), Salisbury, MDTo Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI), Kingsport, TN
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Guy wire
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT ATTEMPTED A PRECAUTIONARY LDG AT A PRIVATE GRASS AIRSTRIP HE HAD LOCATED, AFTER BEING ADVISED OF WX AT HIS INTENDED DESTINATION BY ATC. JUST PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN, HE OBSERVED A BALLOON AT MID-FIELD AND EXCUTED A GO-AROUND. DURING CLIMBOUT, HE LOST SIGHT OF THE FIELD AND CIRCLED FOR SEVERAL MINUTES AS THE WX CONDITIONS DETERIORATED. HE SUBSEQUENTLY ATTEMPTED A LDG ON A GRAVEL ROAD WHERE HE OBSERVED WIRES IN FRONT OF HIM; HE ADDED FULL PWR TO GO-AROUND AND THE AMPHIBIOUS ACFT MISSED THE WIRES TO THE FRONT, BUT A WING STRUCK A UTILITY POLE GUY WIRE. THE ACFT SPUN AROUND TO THE SIDE AND CAME TO REST NOSE-UP AGAINST A UTILITY POLE. THE PLT TOLD A STATE TROOPER THAT HE HAD ATTEMPTED THE LDG BECAUSE HE FELT HE WAS GETTING LOW ON FUEL. LATER EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT REVEALED APPROX 2 GALS. OF FUEL ON BOARD. NO EVIDENCE OF LEAKAGE WAS FOUND. THE FLT ORIGINATED AT SALISBURY, MD AT APPROX 1135 EDT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA146
- Event ID
- 20001213X30865
- Case number
- ATL87LA146
- 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: 4c06d67e30103b594c9fd5a904c285ffe1129f2e32498a988ac05bc12184e20a; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:52:14.486Z.