FTW98LA159 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN) to Halliburton Field (DUC)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA159
- 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 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N2044N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN)To Halliburton Field (DUC), Duncan, OK
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of control 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he had landed earlier and the accident occurred as he was departing for the return flight to his home airport. He had observed 'terrific' winds while standing outside a hangar. When he contacted ground control, the pilot was instructed to taxi to Runway 17. He noticed that the windsock favored runway 21, so he requested and was approved to use runway 21. The pilot reported that shortly after liftoff, the wind 'blew the airplane' to the right and off the runway centerline. The airplane crossed over a drainage ditch, made a 180-degree turn, and struck the ditch. At the time of the accident, the reported winds were 190 degrees at 24 knots, with gusts to 30 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper compensation for wind conditions, which resulted in a loss of directional control and collision with a ditch. A contributing factor was the high crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA159
- Event ID
- 20001211X09677
- Case number
- FTW98LA159
- 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: ce0feedd8c3c144b12c09ffaf42036a1037a6ba10acf8fbbd67f4e3645ef0410; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:52:59.371Z.