FTW94FA060 · Palmer HAWK BM-4
Palmer HAWK BM-4 and Ellington Aero Club Cessna 172N · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA060
- 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
- 5 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Palmer HAWK BM-4
- Aircraft type
- Palmer HAWK BM-4
- 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
- N75DL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T02To T02
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172N
- 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
- N739TL
- Operator
- Ellington Aero Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T02To T02
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS AN INSTRUCTOR (CFI) & STUDENT IN A CESSNA 172 WERE MAKING TOUCH-&-GO'S ON RUNWAY 14R, A BM-4 PILOT TRANSMITTED ON UNICOM THAT HE WAS APPROACHING FROM THE WEST FOR A BASE ENTRY. REPORTEDLY, THE CESSNA PILOTS WERE TRANSMITTING THEIR POSITIONS ON UNICOM, ALSO. THE BM-4 SUBSEQUENTLY TURNED BASE TO FINAL BEHIND THE CESSNA & WAS SEEN CONVERGING ON THE CESSNA IN DISTANCE & ALTITUDE. IMPACT OCCURRED ON SHORT FINAL. WITNESSES SAID THE AIRPLANES REMAINED TOGETHER, ROTATED TO THE LEFT & DESCENDED VERTICALLY TO THE GROUND. THE BM-4 COLOR WAS WHITE WITH YELLOW TRIM & THE CESSNA WAS COLORED WHITE WITH BROWN TRIM. YELLOW PAINT TRANSFER WAS OBSERVED ON THE UPPER LEFT WING SURFACE, AFT CABIN SUPPORT POST & AFT WINDSHIELD OF THE CESSNA. LEADING EDGE DAMAGE OF THE RIGHT WING OF THE BM-4 WAS APPROXIMATELY EQUAL TO THE WIDTH OF THE AFT CABIN WINDOW OF THE CESSNA. AN IMPACT SIGNATURE MEASUREMENT AT THE OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE LEFT FLAP OF THE CESSNA WAS APPROXIMATELY EQUAL TO THE BM-4 RIGHT LANDING GEAR STRUT WIDTH.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PILOT OF THE HAWK BM-4, WHICH RESULTED IN HIS FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID THE CESSNA 172. THE BM-4 PILOT'S NON-STANDARD PROCEDURE FOR ENTERING THE TRAFFIC PATTERN WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA060
- Event ID
- 20001206X00618
- Case number
- FTW94FA060
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 83d8430b7880919e54fd498be3b9fe14496e1c1e9a430f362e8a2b93113f075a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:16:35.379Z.