- Date
- June 25, 1991, 17:00 local (21:00 UTC)
- Place
- Mt. Berry, GA
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N91SMPiper PA-28
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report February 12, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19910625030609A
- Case key
- 8330
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning, his poor inflight decision to continue into deteriorating weather conditions, and his inadvertent flight into IMC. Factors in this accident were: the clouds obscuring the mountain at the time of the accident, and the pilot's lack of total experience.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The newly-certificated private pilot (a british citizen) was returning from a cross-country flight. About 5 miles from the destination airport, the airfplane impacted the side of lavender mountain. The wreckage was found 11 days after the accident. The investigation revealed that the crash site was obscured in clouds at the time of the accident. The pilot was not instrument-rated. Damage to trees and to the airframe were indicative of a level flight, wings level collision with the trees. The pilot obtained some weather information from fss earlier in the day, but did not receive a briefing for his destination airport, and did not obtain any weather info at his last fueling stop.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N91SM
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-7515345
- Airframe hours
- 2,272
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E3D, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Northwest Georgia Aviation,Inc
- Registered owner
- Northwest Georgia Aviation,Inc
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · June 21, 1991 · 23 hours before
- Departed
- 06A · Tuskegee, AL
- Destination
- RMG · Rome, GA
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 36
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 80 total · 50 in this make and model · 10 as pilot in command · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 100° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 3 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 800 ft broken
- Temperature
- 70 °F, dew point 68 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MGE, 44 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.