ATL04LA005 · Piper PA-28R-180
Piper PA-28R-180 and Charles War F4V · Accident: midair collision during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04LA005
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-28R-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
- N70SR
- Operator
- Mark Gregory Etheredge
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shelby County Airport (EET), Shelby County, ALTo St Clair County Airport (PLR), Pell City, 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
- Landing
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Charles War F4V
- Aircraft type
- Charles WAR F4V
- 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
- N71723
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St Clair County Airport (PLR), Pell City, ALTo 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 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › VFR procedures, not followed
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Piper PA-28R-180 (Arrow), N70SR, and a Charles, WAR F4V (Corsair), N71723, experimental amateur built collided in-flight prior to touchdown at the St Clair County Airport, in Pell City, Alabama. According to a CFII/MEI he had just left the main ramp area and was taxiing to runway 20. He heard the Arrow announce he was inbound for landing, and later announced that he was entering the downwind for runway 20. The CFII stated that he was following the homebuilt Corsair, to the hold short line of runway 20. After the Corsair took off the CFII completed his runup, and heard the Arrow announce that he was entering a left base for runway 20. The CFII saw the airplane on base, and heard him announce his turn to final. As the airplane was established on final, he noticed the Corsair, low and turning final for runway 20. The Corsair was about 200 feet agl and outside of the treeline. The Corsair's right wing hit the Arrow's left main landing gear at about 100 feet agl, and within the treeline. Both aircraft remained in control and landed
Probable cause
Visual lookout not maintained by the pilot of the other aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04LA005
- Event ID
- 20031017X01752
- Case number
- ATL04LA005
- 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, coordinates. 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: ed45f9d884600537af5551a1427f0711d56303f1bf4223d4ebd40e64f0536cb2; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:24:35.683Z.