ATL84FA044 · Piper PA-31-300
Piper PA-31-300 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Smith Reynolds Airport (INT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84FA044
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-31-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N6459L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smith Reynolds Airport (INT), WINSTON SALEM, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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 terrain/water
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS FIRST RADAR IDENTIFIED ABOUT 18 MI NORTH OF THE ARPT & WAS GIVEN RADAR VECTORS FOR A RIGHT DOWNWIND & BASE TO RWY 36R. WHILE ON A DOWNWIND HEADING 150 DEG, THE PLT WAS ASSIGNED A HEADING OF 270 DEG & WAS QUERIED IF THE ARPT WASIN SIGHT. THE PLT RESPONDED '...WE GOT IT.' HOWEVER, RADAR DATA SHOWS THE ACFT CONTINUING THE TURN THROUGH 270 DEG TO ABOUT 350 DEG. AFTER ABOUT 1/2 MI, THE ACFT TURNED LEFT TO 250 DEG DESCENDING. THE TURN CONTINUED TO A SW HEADING APPROXIMATELY ALIGNED WITH A CITY STREET THAT PASSES SOUTH OF THE ARPT ON A COURSE OF 250 DEG. THE ALTITUDE DECREASED WITH A CONSISTENT RATE TO 900 FT WHEN RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. ELEV AT THE APCH END OF RWY 36R IS 724 FT. WRECKAGE DISTRIBUTION WAS ALONG A 245 DEG HEADING. A FLT INSPECTION OF THE RWY 36R EDGE LIGHTS AT NIGHT DURING VFR CONDITIONS INDICATED THE LIGHTS WERE NOT VISIBLE BEYOND 30 DEG OF THE RWY CENTERLINE. THE PLT GOT UP AT 0730 ON 11/14.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84FA044
- Event ID
- 20001214X44982
- Case number
- ATL84FA044
- 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: 2e720a1c0d6867c65a19dcd75beb511a9b05c1695bf94b5e41e3e06a86ed2b52; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:29:41.730Z.