ATL84MA114 · Cessna 421B
Cessna 421B · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM) to 3A1 · Cullman, AL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84MA114
- 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
- 6 · 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
Cessna 421B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N3291Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM), Montgomery, ALTo 3A1 · Cullman, AL
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Lack of recent instrument time
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not performed
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment
- Pilot in command › Visual/aural perception
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT CLEARED FOR NIGHT NDB RWY 19 APCH TO FOLWOM FIELD. ERRATIC RADAR TRACK DRG PROCEDURE TURN AND INBD INTERCEPT. WITNESSES DESCRIBED 200 FT CEILING AND REDUCED VIS IN FOG AT AIRPORT. OTHER WITNESSES OBSERVED ACFT ON NORTHBOUND COURSE,FOLLOWED BY TURN TO WEST AT ROOFTOP HEIGHT,WELL BELOW MDA,AT A POINT ONE MILE NORTHEAST OF ARPT. ENG OPERATION SOUNDED NORMAL. ACFT CONTACTED TREES AT ABOUT AIRPORT ELEVATION,1 MILE NORTH OF AIRPORT. WRECKAGE PRODUCED 632 FT PATH. SEVERED LIMBS,PROP DMG AND ENG EXAMINATION REVEALED EVIDENCE OF POWER AT IMPACT. 62 YEAR OLD PILOT HAD NOT FLOWN WITH CFI IN YEARS, INSTRUMENT CURRENCY UNKNOWN. PLT FND TO HAVE SEVERE CORONARY ATHEROSCLEROSIS WITH NEAR TOTAL OCCLUSION OF RT CORONARY ARTERY AND EVIDENCE OF PAST TOTAL OCCLUSION OF LEFT CIRCUMFLEX CORONARY ARTERY. CEILING LOWER THAN FCST FOR AREA. FLT PURPOSE TO CARRY EMPLOYEES TO MEET TRUCK,GO JOB SITE. LIMITATION ON PLT MEDICAL CERTIFICATE,NOT FOR NIGHT FLIGHT. SUNSET AT 1745 CST, 51 MINUTES BEFORE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84MA114
- Event ID
- 20001214X38973
- Case number
- ATL84MA114
- 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 1984-03-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: eda7fabf352afc513968c3858b9ee4852be917d402b192ee04332a86782f8a7c; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:37:40.945Z.