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Atlas / NTSB / ATL85FA097

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL85FA097

1985-02-12 CARTERSVILLE, Georgia, United States Airport · 6A0 Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N18AW

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

WARD ASCHER YAKOLEV YAK 11

Year of manufacture

1954 · 31 years old at event

Engine

P & W R-1830-94M2 (1350 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20221121

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A13E68

Registrant of record

GAMBLE ENTERPRISES LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE FLT HAD NOT YET BEEN SCHEDULED WHEN THE PLT RETIRED FOR THE EVENING AT 2230 TO 2300 EST. AT 0230, HE WAS AWOKEN & NOTIFIED TO MAKE A NGT CARGO FLT. THE OWNER OBTAINED A WX BRIEFING & FILED A FLT PLAN, THEN BRIEFED THE PLT LATER. THE PLT ARRIVED AT THE ARPT AT 0430. HE PREFLIGHTED THE ACFT WHILE THE OWNER UPDATED THE WX BRIEFING. THE ACFT WAS CLEARED AS FILED WITH A CLEARANCE VOID TIME OF 0500; THE CLEARANCE WAS RADIOED TO THE PLT BY UNICOM. DURING TAKEOFF,AT 0510, THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED CLIMBING NORTHBOUND TO APRX 800' AGL IN MODERATE SNOWFALL WITH THE LANDING LGT ON. A SHORT TIME LATER, THE ACFT CRASHED APRX 1 MI NE OF THE ARPT WHILE IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN, RGT WING LOW ATTITUDE. NO PRE- IMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. REPORTEDLY, WHEN THE PLT 1ST HIRED ON, HE EXAGGERATED HIS FLT EXPERIENCE; HE HAD PROBLEMS WITH INSTRUMENT FLYING & WAS NOT SCHEDULED FOR FLTS IN MARGINAL WX; & HE WAS GIVEN EXTRA HELP. AT THE TIME OF THE ACDNT, SNW WAS FALLING, MIXED ICING WAS FORCAST IN CLDS & THERE WAS A SIGMET FOR MOD TO SVR TURBC BELOW 8000'. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1985_ATL85FA097.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗