NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA91MA042
Registry · N7217L
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
AEROMARINE CONSULTING INC MERLIN
Seats / Engines
1 seats · 1 engine
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A9AA9B
Registrant of record
LEUPP MATHHEW C
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE DECISION OF THE CAPTAIN TO INITIATE AND CONTINUE AN INSTRUMENT APPROACH INTO CLEARLY IDENTIFIED THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY, RESULTING IN A LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE FROM WHICH THE FLIGHTCREW WAS UNABLE TO RECOVER AND SUBSEQUENT COLLISION WITH OBSTACLES AND THE TERRAIN. (NTSB REPORT AAR-92/01)
Factual narrative
THE AIRPLANE CRASHED INTO HOUSES WHILE ON AN ILS APPROACH TO RUNWAY 5 AT THE BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT. THE WEATHER BRIEFING DATA THAT THE CAPTAIN RECEIVED IN MOBILE WAS ACCURATE, ADVISING HIM TO EXPECT THUNDERSTORMS IN THE BIRMINGHAM AREA. BIRMINGHAM ATIS INFORMATION WHISKEY AND X-RAY, MENTIONING THUNDERSTORMS, WAS ALSO ACCURATE, AND THE FLIGHTCREW HEARD THEM, AS WELL AS INFORMATION FROM THE APPROACH CONTROLLER THAT THE AIRPORT WAS EXPERIENCING THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1991_DCA91MA042.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control, thunderstorm). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (IJAAA)
The Impact of Thunderstorms on Take-off Data in South Africa
Aviation and meteorology are entwined disciplines, as aviation occurs in the atmosphere. Prevailing weather conditions at take-off are of utmost importance to aviation.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
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