ATL84FA184 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: abrupt maneuver en route
From Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84FA184
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N1836D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, ALTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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
- Autopilot/flight director › Engaged
- Flight control, elevator tab › Deployed inadvertently
- Pilot in command › Autopilot, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Elevator trim, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, not understood
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND IN A NEAR VERTICAL NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AFTER BEING OBSERVED BY WITNESSES TO PITCH DOWN DURING CRUISE FLT. THIS ACFT & PLT FLEW EARLIER IN THE DAY WITH AN INSTRUCTOR WHO HAD TO RECOVER CONTROL OF THE ACFT AFTER THE PLT ALLOWED IT TO ENTER AN UNCOMMANDED SPIRAL. THE RADIO TRANSCRIPT OF THAT FLT CONTAINED, 'PROBLEMS WITH THE HSI WE, AH, NEED TO COME BACK.' THE PLT HAD BEEN SCHEDULED TO GO TO LOUISVILLE BUT THE FLT WAS CANCELED. LATER THE SAME DAY THE PLT/OWNER RETURNED TO THE ARPT, SAID HE HAD READ ABOUT THE HSI SYSTEM AND WANTED TO RESET IT AND FLY. SHORTLY INTO THE FLT THE PLT RADIOED THAT HIS AUTOPLT WAS 'STUCK IT IS TAKING MAIN STRENGTH TO HOLT IT.' HE SAID HE WANTED TO TALK TO SOMEONE WHO KNEW ABOUT THE BONANZA TO 'SEE WHAT HE COULD DO.' IF THE AUTOPLT DISCONNECTS AN AUDIBLE SOUND IS HEARD. NO SUCH SOUND WAS HEARD ON THE TAPES. AFTER THE ACCIDENT THE TRIM TABS WERE FOUND IN THE FULL NOSE DOWN POSITION.A PLT WHO HAD FLOWN THIS ACFT THE DAY BEFORE SAID THE AUTOPLT WOULD NOT DISCONNECT USING THE MODE OFF SWITCH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84FA184
- Event ID
- 20001214X39461
- Case number
- ATL84FA184
- 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: a4c58c7e63d06bbe82a844c05f963a11dc053807853ac12ba94f54a789590cae; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:31:17.167Z.