FTW94LA075 · Cessna T-210J
Cessna T-210J · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR) to Drake Field (FYV)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94LA075
- 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 T-210J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna T-210
- 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
- N2298R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR), Ruidoso, NMTo Drake Field (FYV), Fayetteville, AR
- 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
- 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 terrain/water
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT DEPARTED ON A NIGHT CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT WITHOUT OBTAINING A WEATHER BRIEFING. WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT AT 13,500 FEET, WHILE RECEIVING TRAFFIC ADVISORIES FROM CENTER, THE WEATHER DETERIORATED AND THE PILOT REQUESTED THE WEATHER FOR HIS DESTINATION AIRPORT. CENTER GAVE THE PILOT THE REQUESTED WEATHER AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO DEVIATE FROM HIS PLAN AND LAND AT A NEARBY AIRPORT. A VFR RADAR HANDOFF WAS COMPLETED AND THE PILOT INITIATED HIS DESCENT TO HIS REVISED DESTINATION. APPROACH CONTROL GAVE THE PILOT THE DISTANCE AND DIRECTION TO THE AIRPORT, AND TOLD HIM TO REPORT THE AIRPORT IN SIGHT. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED IN A CULTIVATED FIELD A MILE AND A HALF WEST OF THE AIRPORT. THE CEILING WAS OBSCURED WITH A REPORTED VISIBILITY OF A QUARTER OF A MILE IN FOG. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ALTIMETER HAD MALFUNCTIONED; HOWEVER, THE ALTIMETER WAS FOUND READING 411 FEET HIGHER THAN THE TRUE ALTITUDE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO IMC. FACTORS WERE THE WEATHER, THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A WEATHER BRIEFING FOR THE FLIGHT, AND THE DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94LA075
- Event ID
- 20001206X00633
- Case number
- FTW94LA075
- 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 1994-01-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f4c9b5836c1128728077bba3b17dbefb494702cdd39efc224d2ae645f5156543; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:05:10.769Z.