FTW96FA390 · Cessna 320C
Cessna 320C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From 3R5 · New Braunfels, TX to Waco Regional Airport (ACT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96FA390
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 320C
- 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
- N3020T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3R5 · New Braunfels, TXTo Waco Regional Airport (ACT), 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
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot (plt) left his residence at 0500 & flew from San Antonio to Alamogordo. On the return flight (flt), he diverted to New Braunfels, due to weather (wx). After landing, he indicated that he needed fuel, but fuel was not available until the next morning. Reportedly, he slept in the aircraft (acft). Airport (arpt) personnel noted plt had departed without refueling & without a wx briefing. No record of en route communication or refueling was found. About 0600, wreckage was sited where acft had impacted in a level attitude near Waco Regional Arpt, about 0.89 mi from the VOR. Arpt elevation was 516 ft, minimum descent altitude (MDA) for the VOR approach was 880 ft. The VOR bearing selector was found at 142 deg (inbnd course was 141 deg). Waco wx was reported to be 300' ceiling, variable 100', visibility 1/2 mi with fog. No preimpact mechanical failure was found. Propeller damage & slashes marks indicated the engines were providing power during impact. Plt had been prescribed Wellbutrin (bupropion) for depression & anxiety. Toxicology tests of his blood showed 0.11 mcg/ml bupropion (antidepressant), 0.20 mcg/ml erythrodihydrobupropion, 0.94 mcg/ml threodihydrobupropion, & an unreported amount of tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid (metabolite of marijuana). Tests of his urine showed 0.118 mcg/ml Phentermine (appetite suppressant/stimulant). Plt's prescription for bupropion had been refilled on 8/28/96. His son believed he was under stress from business & finances, & probably fatigued. Plt had urgent need to be at a real estate license renewal class in Ft Worth at 0900.
Probable cause
VFR flight by the pilot into instrument meteorological conditions, and his failure to maintain sufficient altitude or clearance from the terrain. Factors relating to the accident were: inadequate preflight by the pilot, his failure to obtain a weather briefing, darkness, adverse weather conditions, lack of fuel to proceed to an alternate destination, pressure induced on the pilot by an urgent need to get to a real estate license renewal class, and pilot anxiety/depression.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96FA390
- Event ID
- 20001208X06715
- Case number
- FTW96FA390
- 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: b1b515591e665bfecb902aacd78cdd4eaa8c94b0adc83708f02007038cfd9ca8; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:11:29.972Z.