FTW94FA123 · SIAI-Marchetti F.260C
SIAI-Marchetti F.260C · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV) to West Memphis Municipal Airport (AWM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA123
- 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
SIAI-Marchetti F.260C
- Aircraft type
- Siai Marchetti F-260
- 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
- N14FD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV), Shreveport, LATo West Memphis Municipal Airport (AWM), West Memphis, 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Flt control syst, aileron control cable/rod › Smoke
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS FLYING LOW LEVEL BETWEEN TWO SPANS OF AN OPEN RAILROAD TRESTLE WHICH SPANNED THE ARKANSAS RIVER WHEN HE COLLIDED WITH WIRES MOUNTED ON TOP OF THE TRESTLE. THE WIRE STRIKE RESULTED IN THE SEVERING OF THE RIGHT AILERON CABLE AND AN ENSUING LOSS OF CONTROL. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY HIT THE GROUND IN A LEFT WING LEADING, NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE, AND BURNED. THIS WAS A FLIGHT OF TWO AIR COMBAT DEMONSTRATION PILOTS REPOSITIONING TO THEIR HOME BASE. THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE WAS NUMBER TWO. NUMEROUS WITNESSES IN THE AREA REPORTED SEEING THE AIRPLANES FLYING AT 50 TO 200 FEET AGL, CHASING EACH OTHER WITH LITTLE SEPARATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE CLEARANCE FROM WIRES DURING LOW LEVEL FLIGHT WHICH RESULTED IN A SEVERED AILERON CABLE. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE DURING THE FLIGHT AND HIS INABILITY TO CONTROL THE AIRPLANE FOLLOWING THE WIRE STRIKE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA123
- Event ID
- 20001206X01090
- Case number
- FTW94FA123
- 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: b7aec688333e80a89244177b990d75b8ad63ec479e1cb14589cf3fc3d905605c; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:11:39.160Z.