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ATL90FA115

1990-05-21 · FRANKFORT, Kentucky, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport FFT

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OPERATE THE AIRCRAFT WITHIN THE CENTER OF GRAVITY LIMITATIONS OF THE AIRCRAFT.

Factual narrative

THE AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT AND HIS FIVE PASSENGERS WERE ATTEMPTING TO DEPART RUNWAY 24 AT FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, DURING THE TAKEOFF THE TAIL APPEARED TO BE DRAGGING THE RUNWAY, AND SPARKS WERE OBSERVED COMING FROM THE TAIL OF THE AIRCRAFT. AFTER TAKEOFF, THE AIRCRAFT WAS FLYING WITH A NOSE UP PITCH ATTITUDE OF ABOUT 30 DEGREES AND HANGING ON THE PROPELLER. THE ENGINE APPEARED TO BE RUNNING SMOOTHLY, AND AT A HIGH RPM. AT ABOUT THE END OF THE RUNWAY, THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN A LEFT TURN, ROLLED INVERTED AND CRASHED. WEIGHT AND BALANCE CALCULATIONS SHOWED THE AIRCRAFT'S CENTER OF GRAVITY EXCEEDED THE AFT CENTER OF GRAVITY LIMIT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_ATL90FA115.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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