What happened
On the night of the accident, ATI Flight 805 departed from Seattle, destined for Toledo. During the approach to runway 07, the first officer was managing the ILS approach. The aircraft encountered difficulty capturing the localizer and glide slope, leading the captain to initiate a go-around at 03:13. Following the decision, the crew was vectored onto a base leg with a heading of 100° to intercept the final approach course.
During this process, the aircraft faced a significant 35-knot crosswind from 180°, which hindered the first officer's ability to stabilize the approach on the localizer and glide slope. At 03:24, the cockpit received multiple GPWS warnings, including three glideslope alerts and sink rate warnings.
At 03:24:17, the captain assumed control of the aircraft type to perform a second missed approach maneuver. During this phase, the captain experienced spatial disorientation, which led to the development of an unusual attitude characterized by pitch angles reaching 25° and bank angles as high as 80°. Control was subsequently transferred back to the first officer, who attempted to level the wings and raise the nose. However, the aircraft struck the ground before the recovery from the nose-low, left-bank attitude could be completed. The accident resulted in four fatalities.
Findings
Investigation into the sequence of events indicates that the primary factor was the spatial disorientation of the captain during the second missed approach maneuver, which prevented the successful recovery of the aircraft from an extreme unusual attitude before impact.