ATL87FA007 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Knoxville, TN to Nashville, TN
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA007
- 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
Piper PA-32R-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N5260F
- Operator
- Emert Mobile Homes
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Knoxville, TNTo Nashville, 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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
- 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 › Flight/navigation instrument(s), improper use of
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not performed
- Pilot in command › Inadequate transition/upgrade training
- Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Qualification
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS CLEARED FOR THE LOCALIZER APPROACH TO RWY 31. THE PILOT REPORTED THE AIRPORT IN SIGHT. THE FLIGHT DESCENDED INTO THE CLOUD LAYER AND CRASHED ABOUT 1000 FEET SHORT OF THE MIDDLE MARKER. THE PILOT DID NOT REPORT ANY AIRCRAFT PROBLEM. THE APPROACH MDA IS 1040 FEET. THERE WAS NO REPORTED CEILING AND THERE WAS A .25 MILE VISIBILITY. THE PILOT WAS NOT INSTRUMENT QUALIFIED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA007
- Event ID
- 20001213X34906
- Case number
- ATL87FA007
- 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: 9c104788efdd96cd544e62dd49ab7a36ccc1c645e3fda13758dba1aee1f207bc; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:21:56.382Z.