FTW94FA183 · Cessna 320E
Cessna 320E · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA183
- 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
- 2 · 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 320E
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N3472Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHEEPHERDERS NEAR THE ACCIDENT SITE REPORTED OBSERVING THE TWIN ENGINE AIRPLANE PERFORMING LOW LEVEL MANEUVERS IN THE MOUNTAINS NEAR THEIR VICINITY. THEY LATER HEARD THE SOUND OF GROUND IMPACT. THE RESTRICTED CATEGORY AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH ELECTRONIC SURVEYING EQUIPMENT FOR LOW LEVEL AIRBORNE MAGNETIC MAPPING FOR MINERAL EXPLORATION. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED ON THE EASTERN SLOPE OF A BOX CANYON AT THE 7,000 FOOT ELEVATION. COMPONENTS AND GROUND SCARS WERE FOUND ALONG A 220 FOOT LONG PATH ON THE 42 TO 65 DEGREE DOWN SLOPE OF THE CANYON WALL. THE MISSION PROFILE WAS TO CONDUCT A SERIES OF LOW LEVEL FLIGHTS AT ALTITUDES RANGING FROM 200 TO 500 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE, ENGINES, AND TURBOCHARGERS, DID NOT REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL ANOMALIES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN TERRAIN CLEARANCE WHILE MANEUVERING DURING A LOW LEVEL AERIAL MAPPING FLIGHT. A FACTOR WAS THE BOX CANYON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA183
- Event ID
- 20001206X01275
- Case number
- FTW94FA183
- 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: 250c14a46b4eb59c692b1e203eccdf43855f13ebc6bbc08b6b02eb7507ee1e95; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:08:50.204Z.