ATL05FA034 · Diamond Aircraft DA40-180
Diamond Aircraft DA40-180 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (CRG) to Donaldson Field Airport (GYH)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL05FA034
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Diamond Aircraft DA40-180
- Aircraft type
- Diamond DA40
- 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
- N42SE
- Operator
- Harry Moore
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (CRG), Jacksonville, FLTo Donaldson Field Airport (GYH), Greenville, SC
- 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
- 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 object
- 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
- Wire, transmission; Tree(s)
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Upon arriving near the destination airport the pilot was advised that the weather was below the approach minimums and was asked if he wanted to divert to his alternate airport. The pilot told the tower controller that he did not have an alternate filed. The tower controller advised the pilot that Donaldson Center Airport was nearby and asked the pilot if he would like to divert to Donaldson. The pilot elected to divert to Donaldson and he was given radar vectors for the final approach course for runway 5. As the pilot maneuvered for the approach, the airplane descended below 2,500 feet at which time the tower controller issued a low altitude warning with no response from the pilot. Attempts to re-establish communication with the pilot were unsuccessful. Examination of the crash site revealed a damaged power line about 75 feet above the ground and that the tops of four trees were also damaged. Airplane debris was scattered on a 195-degrees magnetic heading, and the wreckage path was 100 feet wide by 450 feet long. The engine was separated from the airplane and was found 300 feet from the main wreckage. The left wing was separated from the airframe and found on the right side of the wreckage path. No mechanical problems were reported by the pilot prior to the accident. The post-accident examination of the wreckage failed to disclose a mechanical problem or component failure. Radar data shows the airplane losing 600 feet of altitude in a period of 14 seconds before the airplane was lost on radar. The elevation at the crash site was 955 feet.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow IFR procedures and to maintain assigned altitude resulting in a collision with a transmission wire and trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL05FA034
- Event ID
- 20041230X02041
- Case number
- ATL05FA034
- 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: 2606e8b50797b1f1518670f9d28c6b8844ab5dec7ad22fb8c85da87aeadb3ac9; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:10:51.023Z.