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ATL85FA197

1985-06-28 · CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport CLT

N542TW has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (RANS S-7S COURIER, built 2021), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A TREE AND A POLE SHORT OF THE RWY DURING A NIGHT VFR APPROACH TO LAND. THE PLT CHANGED FROM RWY 18 TO 36 DURING THE APPROACH. HE WAS SEEN LOW & FAST ON DWNWIND WHICH ENDED IN A STEEP DESCENDING TURN TO GROUND CONTACT. THE TWR HAD OVERIED THE PLT DURING THE INITIAL APPROACH BECAUSE OF HIS SPEED AND HIGH ALTITUDE. THE PLT REPLIED THAT HE WOULD BE DOWN AND REQUESTED A CHANGE OF RWY. THE WIND WAS REPORTED AS FROM 150 DEGREES AT 7 KTS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1985_ATL85FA197.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.