Hill-Williford Aviation Piper PA-31-350 accident
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) to Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83AA029
- 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-31-350
- 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
- N59771
- Operator
- Hill-Williford Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OHTo Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NC
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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/navigation instrument(s), improper use of
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER A MISSED APPROACH AT ASHEVILLE THE FLT WAS CLEARED TO THE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG ARPT AT GREER,SC. ENROUTE TO GREER RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. IN RESPONSE TO A QUERY FROM ATLANTA ARTCC THE PLT VERIFIED HIS POSITION AS BEING ON THE 235 DEG RADIAL OF SPARTANBURG VOR & 11.9 MI SW. HE WAS THEN CLEARED TO DESCEND TO 2700 FT & EXECUTE AN ILS APCH. THE ACFT IMPACTED A MOUNTAIN AT THE 3200 FT LEVEL. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND ON THE 235 DEG RADIAL OF THE SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN VORTAC & AT 24 MI. REVIEW OF THE ACFT'S LOGBOOK REVEALED THAT MECHANICAL IRREGULARITIES REPORTED WERE NOT CORRECTED FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME. NO CORRECTIVE ACTION WAS LISTED FOR AN "OUTER MARKER INOP AURAL & VISUAL (NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW, SINCE ADF IS ALSO INOP)." & "LIGHT IN #2 VOR HEAD OUT.". THE MARKER BEACON WAS DESCRIBED AS INOPERATIVE ON 3 DATES BEGINNING 8/22/81, & THE ADF WAS DESCRIBED AS INOPERATIVE ON 7 DATES BEGINNING 5/8/81. NO CORRECTIVE ACTION WAS LISTED FOR ANY ENTRY ABOUT THE MARKER BEACON OR ADF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83AA029
- Event ID
- 20020917X04287
- Case number
- ATL83AA029
- 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: 7193f9dd4d2a4cd648f4f872838789424dc8517d21147585ab1795540a027661; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:31:54.378Z.