ATL86FA125 · Bellanca 17-31ATC
Bellanca 17-31ATC · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From Smyrna Airport (MQY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86FA125
- 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
- 1
- 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
Bellanca 17-31ATC
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N28138
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smyrna Airport (MQY), Smyrna, TNTo 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
- Airport facilities, runway/landing area condition › Congested
- Airport personnel › Air/ground communications, disregarded
- Airport personnel › Runway maintenance, uncontrolled
- Company/operator management › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Other person › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Winchester, TN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT MADE A VFR PATTERN AT AN UNCONTROLLED ARPT AND NOTED A TRUCK ALONGSIDE THE NORTH END OF THE RWY. THE PLT DID NOTSEE ANY PERSONS ON THE RWY. DURING THE LANDING FLARE THE PLT NOTICED A MAN ON THE RWY NEAR THE RIGHT WINGTIP. A JOLT WAS FELT AS THE ACFT CONTACTED THE WORKMAN. WORKMEN HAD SHOWN UP AT THE ARPT TO SEAL THE RWY WITHOUT PRIOR NOTIFICATION.A LOCAL NOTAM WAS ISSUED BUT THE PLT HAD DEPARTED EARLIER IN THE DAY, FLEW TO ANOTHER FIELD AND RETURNED TO WINCHESTER. NONE OF THE WORKMEN WERE WEARING HIGH VISIBILITY CLOTHING NOR WAS A LOOKOUT POSTED TO WARN OF TRAFFIC ON THE ARPT. ARPT PERSONNEL DID NOT RESPOND TO THE PLT'S UNICOM CALL FOR AN ARPT ADVISORY. THE SEALING CONTRACT WAS MADE BY THE STATE WITH NO LOCAL INVOLVEMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86FA125
- Event ID
- 20001213X33447
- Case number
- ATL86FA125
- 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: 6e1f6a5dd1b6d31c3fcf92bb38432534449f6c320b0805849c8d2167a3e927d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:35:21.363Z.