ATL84FA080 · Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
Flight America Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From W92 to Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84FA080
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
- 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
- N36791
- Operator
- Flight America
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W92To Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO), Charlottesville, VA
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Wing › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE ACFT LANDED, SLUSH WAS OBSERVED TO HAVE ACCUMULATED UNDER THE WINGS & LOWER AFT FUSELAGE & WAS FREEZING. THE ACFT WAS PARKED WITH THE TAIL FACING THE SUN, BUT NONE OF THE ARPT PERSONNEL NOTICED WHETHER THE SUN HAD MELTED THE ICE. THE PLT INDICATED HE WOULD RETURN BY 1630, BUT WHEN THE ARPT MANAGER WAS PREPARING TO LEAVE AT 1715, THE PLT HAD NOT YET RETURNED. ICE REFROZE ON THE RWY. THE ARPT MANAGER NOTIFIED THE FSS & LEFT A MESSAGE ON THE PHONE ANSWERING MACHINE THAT THE ARPT WAS CLOSED. ALSO, TO DISCOURAGE OPERATION ON THE ICY RWY, HE DID NOT TURN ON THE RWY LIGHTS. THE PLT RETURNED AT 1900 & ELECTED TO MAKE A NIGHT DEPARTURE. HE REPORTED THAT DURING TAKEOFF, THE ACFT LIFTED OFF, BUT WOULD NOT CONTINUE CLIMBING. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES & THE ROOF OF A BUILDING, THEN CRASHED& BURNED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM. ANOTHER PLT NOTED A LAYER OF FROST ON THE LEADING EDGE OF HIS ACFT'S WINGS & ELECTED NOT TO FLY. HE BELIEVED THAT THERE WAS FROST ON N36791.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84FA080
- Event ID
- 20001214X38504
- Case number
- ATL84FA080
- 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 1984-01-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4af0e93521dbe93ce98b3d39ce8575ae6d166361d470860f4ce04075e078f294; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:42:35.577Z.