FTW99LA108 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From GPM to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA108
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N8963V
- Operator
- Mark Howell
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From GPMTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 80 hour pilot collided with unmarked powerlines while maneuvering at low altitude at dusk. The operator reported that soon after departure, the pilot encountered lowering ceilings while en route to a nearby non-towered airport. The ceilings continued to drop to about 300 feet, when the pilot elected to execute a 180 degree turn and return to Grand Prairie. While en route, the pilot heard a loud pop and saw a bright flash of light. The engine sputtered, but then continued to run normally. The pilot reported that he was following the railroad tracks southbound at low altitude en route to the non-towered airport when he collided with powerlines. The location of the collision with the wires was located by the FAA inspectors with the assistance of the power company. The broken wire was found at the location where the railroad tracks make a shallow right turn. The powerline was suspended 28 feet above the tracks. Paint transfers on portions of the severed wire matched the color scheme of the wings. The damage to the right wing matches the southbound right turn scenario described by the pilot.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance with the powerlines. Factors were the low ceilings and the dusk light illumination.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA108
- Event ID
- 20001205X00463
- Case number
- FTW99LA108
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-04-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3953504612615bb321f2d261b6457c20bd69306873332ffbb75c3dd06b951edc; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:32:44.675Z.