ATL86FA007 · Piper PA-34-200T
Goldsboro-Wayne Aviation Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Wayne Executive Jetport (GWW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86FA007
- 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-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N1944H
- Operator
- Goldsboro-Wayne Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wayne Executive Jetport (GWW), Goldsboro, NCTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Emotional reaction
- Pilot in command › Interpersonal relations
- Pilot in command › Motivation
- Pilot in command › Stolen aircraft/unauthorized use, intentional
- Pilot in command › Suicide, intentional
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Charleston, SC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED ON RADAR AS IT APPROACHED THE JOINT CIVIL - MILITARY AIRPORT. IT PASSED OVER NEAR THE CENTER OF THE AIRPORT AT ABOUT 200 FEET AGL. THERE WAS NO REPORTED COMMUNICATION WITH THE AIRCRAFT. SEVERAL SIGHTING PLACED THE AIRCRAFT UNDER AT LEAST ONE BRIDGE AS IT BUZZED SEVERAL SHIPS AND TUGS. THE AIRCRAFT ALSO FLEW LOW OVER A SECTION OF THE BASE WHERE THE PILOT HAD FORMERLY WORKED AND HE DROPPED OUT AT LEAST ONE FLARE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED AS IT LINED UP ON THE ABANDONED FUEL STORAGE TANK AND CRASHED INTO THE SIDE OF IT. BOTH ENGINES WERE RUNNING AND THERE WAS NO KNOWN OR REPORTED PROBLEM WITH THE AIRCRAFT. RULED A SUICIDE BY THE MED EXAMINER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86FA007
- Event ID
- 20001214X37944
- Case number
- ATL86FA007
- 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: f875afd1547b619baef0eb6403a893d074ff9d416bebbec73b20a9fb7bb832a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:48:02.361Z.