FTW93FA165 · Fairchild SA-226T
Fairchild SA-226T · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93FA165
- 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
- 4 · 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
Fairchild SA-226T
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild SA-226
- 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
- N241DT
- Operator
- Russ Peacock
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, 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 · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Planned approach, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PURPOSE OF THE TRAINING FLIGHT WAS TO CONDUCT PART 135 CHECKRIDES FOR A PILOT-IN=COMMAND AND A SECOND=IN=COMMAND UPON COMPLETION OF THE CREW'S TRAINING. THE CHECKRIDE WAS BEING OBSERVED BY A FAA INSPECTOR SEATED IN THE CABIN. AFTER COMPLETING AN ILS APPROACH TO RWY 2, THE FLIGHT WAS CLEARED TO CIRCLE TO LAND ON RWY 15. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED OVERFLYING RWY 15 AND LINED UP FOR RWY 20. THE TOWER ADVISED THE PILOT THAT HE WAS LINED UP FOR RWY 20, AND WAS GIVEN THE OPTION TO LAND ON EITHER RWY 15 OR RWY 20. THE PILOT OPTED FOR RWY 15 AND WAS CLEARED TO A RIGHT DOWNWIND. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A HILL AT THE 6,870-FT LEVEL NEAR THE CREST, APROX 5 MI WEST OF THE AIRPORT. THE PUBLISHED CIRCLING MDA FOR THE ILS RWY 2 APCH IS 6,860 FT. THE AIRPORT IS LOCATED ABOUT 9 MI FROM THE CITY, AND SEVERAL LOCAL PILOTS REPORTED A TOTAL LACK OF VISUAL REFERENCE IN THAT SEGMENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POORLY PLANNED CIRCLING APPROACH, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE DARK NIGHT AND A LACK OF VISUAL REFERENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93FA165
- Event ID
- 20001211X12384
- Case number
- FTW93FA165
- 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 1993-05-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 54601b2b7a943cecd726f4559d3a915df349ed59b40ea54a397ac44f926c3684; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:32:53.497Z.