FTW93LA146 · PZL-Mielec PZL-M-18
Bullock Flying Service PZL-Mielec PZL-M-18 · Accident: in flight collision with object during an emergency descent
From AR to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA146
- 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
PZL-Mielec PZL-M-18
- Aircraft type
- PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- 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
- N28587
- Operator
- Bullock Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ARTo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Emergency descent
- 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 object
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF TO THE NORTH, THE AIRPLANE WAS APPROXIMATELY TWENTY FEET ABOVE THE GROUND AND APPROXIMATELY 4OO YARDS BEYOND A ROAD BEING UTILIZED AS AN AERIAL STRIP WHEN THE PILOT STARTED A TURN TO THE NORTHEAST. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT 'DURING THE TURN THE POWER SETTING WAS OK BUT THE AIRPLANE STARTED TO SETTLE AS IF IN A DOWNDRAFT.' PILOT REPORTED THE WINDS FROM THE SOUTH WITH GUSTS TO 15 KNOTS. THE PILOT DECIDED TO LAND THE AIRPLANE IN THE RICE FIELD. WITH THE CLIMB ATTITUDE OF THE AIRPLANE, THE PILOT WAS NOT ABLE TO SEE A BULLDOZER PARKED IN THE FIELD. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE BULLDOZER AND SUBSEQUENTLY, DURING THE UNCONTROLLED DESCENT, CAME TO REST IN AN INVERTED POSITION ON THE BANK OF THE RICE LEVEE. A POST CRASH FIRE DESTROYED THE AIRPLANE
Probable cause
COMPENSATION FOR WIND IMPROPER BY PILOT. FACTORS WERE TAILWIND AND DOWNDRAFT
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA146
- Event ID
- 20001211X12387
- Case number
- FTW93LA146
- 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: ba934da542f647036bb4ce982dd29d9acd492d45b9d07f905e18f8c71da8348e; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:58:13.476Z.