Skip to content

ATL90FA108

1990-05-04 · WILMINGTON, North Carolina, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport ILM

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE DURING A CIRCLING MANEUVER FOR LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: WEATHER CONDITIONS BELOW MINIMUMS FOR A CIRCLING APPROACH, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW IFR PROCEDURES.

Factual narrative

DURING ARRIVAL, THE PLT MADE AN ILS LOCALIZER BACKCOURSE APCH TO RWY 16 & WAS CLEARED TO LAND. HE RPRTD HE WAS INITIATING A MISSED APCH. APRX 10 SECONDS LATER, HE RPRTD THE RWY IN SIGHT & REQUESTED A VISUAL APCH TO LAND ON RWY 34. THE PLT WAS CLEARED TO LAND & THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO MANEUVER TO THE RIGHT (WEST OF THE RWY), THEN TURN BACK LEFT TO A FINAL APCH. HOWEVER, IT CRASHED SHORT OF RWY 35. AN EXAM OF THE CRASH SITE REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT THE ACFT WAS IN A NORMAL UPRIGHT ATTITUDE ON A HEADING OF 340 DEG, WHEN IT CRASHED. INITIAL IMPACT WAS WITH THE APCH LIGHTING SYSTEM SHORT OF RWY 34. A KING-AIR PLT, WHO LANDED ON RWY 16 BEFORE THE ACDNT, ESTIMATED THE CLOUD BASES WERE ABOUT 400' AGL. MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) FOR THE BACKCOURSE APCH WAS 460' MSL. MDA FOR A CIRCLING APCH TO RWY 16 WAS 550' MSL. THE ARPT ELEVATION WAS 32'. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_ATL90FA108.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

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