FTW94FA090 · Cessna P337H
Cessna P337H · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Purdue University Airport (LAF) to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA090
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna P337H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N2QY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Purdue University Airport (LAF), West Lafayette, INTo No airport
- 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 turn to base
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT CANCELED IFR & FLEW TO HIS PRIVATE STRIP, WHERE HE ENTERED A RIGHT TRAFFIC PATTERN FOR LANDING ON RUNWAY 36 IN DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS. THE STRIP WAS LOCATED IN A RURAL AREA WITH FEW GROUND LIGHTS, EXCEPT FOR THE FIRST 1500 FEET OF THE STRIP, WHICH HAD MEDIUM INTENSITY RUNWAY LIGHTING (MIRL). SOUTH OF THE STRIP WAS A LARGE MILITARY MANEUVERING AREA THAT HAD NO LIGHTING. AS THE PILOT WAS MANEUVERING TO LAND, WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE ENTER A STEEP DESCENT. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT CRASHED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN, RIGHT WING LOW ATTITUDE. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT THE SPOILERS WERE EXTENDED. TOXICOLOGY TESTS OF THE PILOT'S LIVER & KIDNEY TISSUE SHOWED 0.74 UG/ML & 0.159 UG/ML, RESPECTIVELY, OF BROMPHENIRAMINE (AN ANTIHISTAMINE). AN FAA TOXICOLOGIST STATED THESE WERE WITHIN A THERAPEUTIC RANGE. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT'S SON, HE TOOK DRIXORAL FOR SINUS PROBLEMS & A SLIGHT HEAD COLD; THE MEDICATION WAS NOT APPROVED FOR FLYING.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, WHILE MANEUVERING TO LAND. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS AND POSSIBLE SPATIAL DISORIENTATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA090
- Event ID
- 20001206X00890
- Case number
- FTW94FA090
- 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 1994-03-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 66198236ae28a9e04976598ca077761d36fb422288bba8f7ee17a322ec1b167a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:14:09.560Z.