ATL82FA110 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-30
Campbell Taggart Mitsubishi MU-2B-30 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA) to Isbell Field (4A9)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82FA110
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Mitsubishi MU-2B-30
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N165MA
- Operator
- Campbell Taggart
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA), Chattanooga, TNTo Isbell Field (4A9), FT. PAYNE, 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
- 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 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
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG THE WX BRIEFING THE PLT WAS ADVISED THAT VFR FLT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO LOW CEILINGS & POOR VISIBILITY. THE PLT RESPONDED HE HAD TO GO TO FT. PAYNE VFR BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO INSTRUMENT APPROACH. A JEPPESEN US (LO)29 LOW ALT ENROUTE CHART WAS FOUND AT THE WRECKAGE THAT HAD A LINE DRAWN TRAVERSING SW OUT OF THE CHATTANOOGA VOR BETWEEN V-115 & V-115E. THE MEA FOR THESE AIRWAYS WAS 4,000 FT MSL. PRIOR TO DEPARTURE THE PLT AS ADVISED THAT TOPS WERE REPORTED 4,500 FT WITH ANOTHER LAYER AT 9,000 FT. THE PLT RESPONDED HE WAS GOING TO FT. PAYNE & THEY HAD NO APPROACH THERE. APPROXIMATELY 2-1/2 MIN AFTER TAKEOFF THE PLT REPORTED "...LOOKS LIKE ABOUT 1500 IS ALL WE'RE GONNA GET RIGHT NOW." ABOUT 7 MIN LATER THE PLT REPORTED THEY WERE STILL VFR BUT MIGHT WANT TO TURN AROUND. THE ACFT IMPACTED THE TOP OF A NORTH/SOUTH RIDGELINEAT AN ELEVATION OF 2,020 FT. THE COPILOT WAS PART OF THE COMPANY'S MANAGEMENT TEAM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82FA110
- Event ID
- 20020917X01741
- Case number
- ATL82FA110
- 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: c9c4ea310fee5dd64cbedeed66438da36ae0240fb44da0ad8df7a626f8f10d92; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:30:07.015Z.