ATL84FA054 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Nashville International Airport (BNA) to Pine Bluff Regional Airport, Grider Field (PBF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84FA054
- 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
- 2 · 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-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N5396L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nashville International Airport (BNA), Nashville, TNTo Pine Bluff Regional Airport, Grider Field (PBF), Pine Bluff, AR
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND IN A VERTICAL DESCENT DURING IMC WEATHER ON A X-COUNTRY FLT. THE PLT HAD FILED AN IFR FLT PLAN BUT HE WAS A STUDENT WITH LIMITED EXPERIENCE AND WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED. ALSO HE WAS CARRYING A PASSENGER. THE CONTROLLER WHO HAD BEEN WORKING THE FLT HAD NOTED A LACK OF PROFESSIONALISM ON THE PART OF THE PLT IN HIS HOLDING OFHEADINGS AND REPORTING PROCEDURES. WHEN THE FLT FINALLY ENCOUNTERED THUNDERSTORMS AND TURBULENCE RADIO CONTACT WAS LOST.THE LAST RADIO CONTACT WAS AT APPROXIMATELY 1346. THE MKC FSS SPECIALIST STATED TO MEMPHIS CENTER AT 1346:07 THAT THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE WAS IN SEVERE TURBULENCE & DID NOT KNOW HIS LOCATION. THE ACFT CRASHED ABOUT 4 MILES EAST OF LEXINGTON, TN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84FA054
- Event ID
- 20001214X44985
- Case number
- ATL84FA054
- 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: 31eebf022bc735bf10d4199ff2c8bd618923bef8a83c017870b7a92be63479ab; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:49:20.688Z.