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BFO89FA048

1989-06-25 · CAESARS HEAD, South Carolina, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport GMU

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED WHILE FLYING OVER RISING TERRAIN, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AND COLLISION WITH WOODED TERRAIN. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE TERRAIN CONDITIONS AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.

Factual narrative

BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE CFI PLT RPRTD HE WOULD BE DEPG ON A SIGHTSEEING FLT. ON THE NEXT DAY, THE ACFT WAS RPRTD AS MISSING & A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. IT WAS LOCATED ON 6/29/89, WHERE IT HAD CRASHED ON MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. RADAR DATA INDCD THE ACFT WAS TRAVELING DOWN A VALLEY & HAD TURNED TOWARD RISING TERRAIN. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT CRASHED ON WOODED, MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 2000 FT & BURNED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE FAILED TO REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL FAILURE/MALFUNCTION THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN AN ACDNT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_BFO89FA048.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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