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ATL89FA173

1989-06-30 · PINEY FLATS, Tennessee, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT AFTER BECOMING SPATIALLY DISORIENTED, AND HIS EXCEEDING THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRCRAFT WHILE ATTEMPTING TO RECOVER FROM AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, CLOUD CONDITION, PILOT FATIGUE, AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE. .

Factual narrative

THE ACFT WAS ON A VFR X-COUNTRY FLT AT NGT, WHEN AN IN-FLT BREAK-UP OCCURRED. SUBSEQUENTLY, WRECKAGE WAS SCATTERED OVER ABOUT A 1.4 MI AREA. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE LEFT WING FAILED IN POSITIVE OVERLOAD APRX 3' OUTBOARD OF THE WING ROOT. THE CABIN DOOR & TAIL SURFACES ALSO SEPD. ALL FRACTURES EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF OVERLAOD. NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PRE-EXISTING DEFECT WAS FND. THE NON-INST RATED PLT WAS NOT IN CONTACT WITH ANY ATC FACILITY DURING THE FLT. RADAR DATA SHOWED THE ACFT MADE SVRL ALT EXCURSIONS DURING ABOUT A 30 MIN PERIOD BEFORE THE ACDNT. JUST BEFORE DISAPPEARING FM RADAR, THE FLT TRACK DEVIATED TO THE LEFT. THE ACDNT OCCURRED ON A DARK NGT AT ABT 2147 EDT; THOUGH HIS LAST REST PERIOD WAS NOT VERIFIED, THE PLT ROUTINELY SLEPT FM 2100 TO 0400. ABT 5 MI SW AT THE TRI-CITY RGNL ARPT, THE 2152 WX WAS IN PART: 5000 FT SCT, 8500' BKN, 30,000' OVC, VIS 7 MI, WND FM 130 DEG AT 7 KTS. ELEV OF THE WX STATION WAS 1519'. THE ACFT WAS AT 8700' MSL WHEN RADAR CTC WAS LOST. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_ATL89FA173.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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