FTW95LA115 · Cessna 414
Cessna 414 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Q34 · Portales, NM to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA115
- 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 414
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 414
- 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
- N4643G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q34 · Portales, NMTo 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
- Approach · IFR missed 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 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Missed approach, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS CLEARED FOR THE VOR RUNWAY 17 APPROACH. FIELD ELEVATION AND THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE WERE 590 AND 980 FEET RESPECTIVELY. THE MISSED APPROACH POINT WAS 10.4 MILES OUTBOUND FROM THE WACO VOR, WHICH COINCIDED WITH THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE PASSENGER SEATED IN THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT ESTABLISHED VISUAL CONTACT WITH THE AIRPORT. AFTER CONFIRMING THAT THE AIRPORT WAS IN SIGHT AND THE RUNWAY ENVIRONMENT IDENTIFIED, THE PILOT CONTINUED HIS DESCENT TOWARDS THE RUNWAY TO LAND ON RUNWAY 17. THE PILOT FURTHER STATED THAT 'I REALIZED THAT THERE WOULD NOT BE ADEQUATE RUNWAY TO SAFELY LAND, AND INITIATED A RIGHT TURN TO EXECUTE A MISSED APPROACH.' THE RIGHT WING OF THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE TOP OF THE TREES. THE FAA INSPECTOR AT THE SCENE REPORTED THAT AFTER IMPACTING THE TREES, THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED THROUGH THE TREES FOR APPROXIMATELY 400 FEET ON A TRACK OF 344 DEGREES PRIOR TO COMING TO REST ON A HEADING OF 230 DEGREES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DELAYED INITIATION OF THE MISSED APPROACH UNTIL WELL BELOW THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE AND BEYOND THE PUBLISHED MISSED APPROACH POINT. FACTORS WERE THE DARK NIGHT AND THE LOW CEILING AND VISIBILITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA115
- Event ID
- 20001207X02965
- Case number
- FTW95LA115
- 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: 013aa39a04d50ba0030599ae7876a78f77f649980ba1afe8df1878d29460b636; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:23:06.269Z.