FTW95LA208 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A and Piper PA-32-300 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA208
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N8872V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teague Municipal Airport (68F), Teague, TXTo Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not 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
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-32-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N7797V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo EYQ · Houston, TX
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A BELLANCA 17-30A WAS APPROACHING TO LAND ON RUNWAY (RWY) 19 AT AN UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT, AS A PIPER PA-32-300 WAS TAKING OFF ON RWY 14. THE RWY CENTERLINES INTERSECTED ABOUT 1100 FEET FROM THE APPROACH END OF RWY 14 (ABOUT 510 FEET FROM A DISPLACED THRESHOLD ON RWY 14). THE APPROACH END OF RWY 19 WAS AT THE INTERSECTION. SUBSEQUENLTY, THE TWO AIRPLANES CONVERGED AND COLLIDED AT THE INTERSECTION. DURING IMPACT, THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR OF THE BELLANCA COLLIDED WITH THE WINDSHIELD AND ENGINE COWLING OF THE PIPER. BOTH AIRPLANES WERE EQUIPPED WITH TWO WAY RADIOS. BOTH PILOTS REPORTED THAT THEY ANNOUNCED THEIR INTENTIONS ON THE UNICOM FREQ (122.95 MHZ); ALTHOUGH THE UNICOM OPERATOR, WHO HAD JUST COME ON DUTY, DID NOT RECALL HEARING EITHER PILOT ANNOUNCE INTENTIONS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE VHF RADIO OF THE DEPARTING PIPER WAS FOUND TUNED TO 122.7 MHZ; HOWEVER, THE PILOT OF A THIRD AIRPLANE REPORTED THAT HE HEARD THE PIPER PILOT MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE UNICOM FREQ THAT HE WAS TAKING OFF ON RUNWAY 14. NO CORROBORATING INFORMATION WAS OBTAIN TO VERIFY THAT THE BELLANCA PILOT HAD COMMUNICATED HIS INTENTIONS ON THE UNICOM FREQ. ACCORDING TO THE PIPER PILOT, THE BELLANCA PILOT DID NOT MAKE A RADIO CALL AS HE WAS APPROACHING THE AIRPORT. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, RWY 14 WAS REPORTED TO BE IN USE. THE WIND WAS REPORTED TO BE FROM 120 DEGREES AT 8 KNOTS.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF BOTH PILOTS TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT. A FACTOR RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE BELLANCA PILOT TO ADEQUATELY COMMUNICATE HIS INTENTIONS ON THE UNICOM FREQUENCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA208
- Event ID
- 20001207X03462
- Case number
- FTW95LA208
- 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: 6e99e88e6eebd41db11ef8d3d74f001b126e13ff1f3c915f72d4ee1a09c0f8e0; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:16:45.543Z.