ATL86FA081 · Robinson R22
Robinson R22 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Knoxville, TN
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86FA081
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Robinson R22
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N90459
- Operator
- DR. Darriel S.Slagle
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Knoxville, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT WAS LAST SEEN TO DEPART RWY 23 AT THE GREENVILLE ARPT & ENTER A LOW CLOUD LAYER AT NGT. A WITNESS ESTIMATED THE HELICOPTER ENTERED THE CLOUDS AT ABOUT 300 TO 400 FT AGL. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND THE NEXT DAY, LOCATED ABOUT 1/4 MI SOUTH OF THE EXTENDED RWY CENTERLINE. AN EXAM REVEALED THE INITIAL IMPACT WAS WITH A TREE. THE HELICOPTER THEN IMPACTED THE GROUND, APRX 75 FT DOWNHILL & NORTH OF THE INITIAL TREE IMPACT POINT. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND; HOWEVER, THE HELICOPTER WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED (DESTROYED) WHEN IT CRASHED. THE PLT WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED. A TOXICOLOGY CHECK SHOWED ONLY A SLIGHT AMOUNT (375 NG/ML) OF BUTALBITAL IN THE PLT'S URINE. A CHECK OF HIS BLOOD WAS NEGATIVE FOR DRUGS/MEDICATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86FA081
- Event ID
- 20001213X32802
- Case number
- ATL86FA081
- 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 1986-02-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 86c84daa3d9f383663448ede0632b5725a84cec022121533d1baba782bea3dd1; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:39:51.244Z.