FTW97LA059 · Cessna 340
Cessna 340 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM) to 27R
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA059
- 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
Cessna 340
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N999JW
- Operator
- Douglas L. Franklin · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), Fort Smith, ARTo 27R
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he was 'approximately 100 feet short of the runway and approximately 35-50 feet above the ground, [when the] right wing went up, then [the] left wing struck the tarmac.' Two witnesses stated that the winds were 'gusty' at the time of the accident. After the accident, the pilot stated that he thought he had encountered an unexpected gust of wind during short final. He estimated that the winds at the time of the accident were from 190 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 25 knots or greater. Examination of the airplane revealed structural damage to the left wing and collapsed left main and nose gear. Ground scars with aircraft paint transfers were found approximately 27 feet left of runway centerline. The pilot and an FAA inspector noted that grass was overgrowing the edges of the runway (approximately 8-12 feet on each side). No mechanical anomalies with the aircraft were found that would have contributed to the accident. The accident occurred at dusk; the runway lights were operational.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate compensation for wind conditions. The gusty wind was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA059
- Event ID
- 20001208X07158
- Case number
- FTW97LA059
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1996-12-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 859fd19fa785c703dfc3172e99ba61efed17b1ac976f06ec84097ed88666a3ad; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:38:23.480Z.