ATL84MA063 · Piper PA-34-200T
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to 2M2
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84MA063
- 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
- 4 · 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-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N66MZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo 2M2
- 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 initial 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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 handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE DESCENT AT LAWRENCEBURG THE ACFT WENT INTO CLOUDS AT 3500 FT. AT 1709 THE ACFT WAS CLEARED FOR AN NDB APPROACH. MINIMUM ALT FOR THE APPROACH IS 1560 FT. FIELD ELEVATION IS 936 FT. THE ACFT WAS BEING TRACKED ON RADAR AND THE LAST CONTACT WAS ABOUT WHERE THE PROCEDURE TURN WOULD BE. THERE WAS NO RADIO TRANSMISSION FROM THE ACFT TO INDICATE ANY TROUBLE. THE ACFT STRUCK THE GROUND ABOUT 10 NM NORTH OF THE ARPT IN A NEAR VERTICAL DESCENT WITH APPARENT ROTATION TO THE LEFT. ALL THE WRECKAGE WAS IN A 60 FT CIRCLE. A REPORTER/PLT HAD HEARD ABOUT THE ACCIDENT AT 1745 AND FLEW TO LAWRENCEBURG. HE MADE THE NDB APPROACH AND NOT BEING VFR AT MDA, HE EXECUTED A MISSED APPROACH AND WENT TO MAURY COUNTY ABOUT 20NM NORTH AND LANDED. THE LAWRENCEBURG NDB WAS FLT CHECKED ON 12/14 AND FOUND TO BE SATISFACTORY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84MA063
- Event ID
- 20001214X45238
- Case number
- ATL84MA063
- 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: 82587339ce916437c54d1aafff62089567889c85c72411cdc40934de38179120; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:45:01.404Z.