ATL86FA147 · Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Dickson County Municipal Airport (M02) to PBI · Palm Beach, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86FA147
- 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
Smith, Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Smith Ted Aerostar AEROSTAR 600
- 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
- N260A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dickson County Municipal Airport (M02), Dickson, TNTo PBI · Palm Beach, 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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); Wire, transmission
- 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
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Disconnected
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Overtemperature
- Flt control syst, elevator trim/tab control › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Climb, not attained
- Pilot in command › Trim setting, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CONTACTED ELECTRICAL WIRES AND TREES SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF. THE ACFT THEN DESCENDED TO IMPACT WITH THE TERRAIN. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE ELEVATOR TRIM ACTUATOR ROD WAS EXTENDED 2.5 INCHES WHICH CORRELATES WITH A FULL NOSE DOWN SETTING. FURTHER EXAMINATION SHOWED THE BUSS WIRE FOR THE ACTUATOR RETRACT SWITCH WAS DISCONNECTED AT THE RETRACT SWITCH POST. SPLATTERED COPPER WAS FOUND ON THE RETRACT SWITCH INDICATING THE BUSS WIRE HAD BEEN SUBJECTED TO HIGH AMPERAGE. THE LIMITATIONS SECTION OF THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK FOR THIS ACFT DOES NOT STATE THAT TAKEOFF IS PROHIBITED WITH INOPERATIVE PITCH TRIM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86FA147
- Event ID
- 20001213X33453
- Case number
- ATL86FA147
- 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: 1dffb633094372a9ca7f56f6082af003f5f6fb51cff2dbfc94e9efb3df6ec12a; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:33:20.942Z.