ATL87FA051 · Beech 35-33
Beech 35-33 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA051
- 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
Beech 35-33
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N210M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, 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
- 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 collision with object
- 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)
- 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 › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Blountville, TN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DRG VECTORS FOR A ILS RWY 23 APCH, THE PLT ALLOWED THE ACFT TO GET 400' BELOW THE ASSIGNED ALT OF 3700'. THE CONTROLLER (CTLR) QUERIED THE PLT ABOUT HIS ALT & THE PLT REPLIED HE HAD GOTTEN A LITTLE LOW, BUT WAS RETURNING TO THE ASSIGNED ALT. AFTER INTERCEPTING THE LOCALIZER (LOC), THE PLT WAS CLRD FOR THE APCH & TOLD TO CONTACT THE TWR. AS THE ACFT WAS ON FINAL APCH, THE TWR CTLR NOTED THAT IT WAS RGT OF COURSE & ADVISED THE PLT. THE PLT ACKNOWLEDGE, BUT MOMENTS LATER, THE ELT ACTIVATED AS THE ACFT HIT TREES ON THE CROWN OF A HILL & CRASHED. INITIAL IMPACT WAS IN LVL FLT AT AN ALT OF ABOUT 1700' MSL. THE ARPT ELEV WAS 1519'. THE DECISION HEIGHT (DH) FOR THE APCH WAS 1718'. DRG THE INV, NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION WAS FND, CONCERNING THE ACFT OR NAV EQUIPMENT, THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACDNT. ABOUT 1 MIN BFR THE ACDNT, ANOTHER PLT, WHO HAD JUST COMPLETED THE APCH, RPRTD THAT HE HAD BROKEN OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT WX MINS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA051
- Event ID
- 20001213X35298
- Case number
- ATL87FA051
- 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 1986-12-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 34ba990c0103829ffefa3154197b25da6b87228392947c725fbed13a134b9a29; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:16:47.339Z.