FTW93LA226 · Sukane KR-2
Sukane KR-2 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Tucumcari Municipal Airport (TCC) to Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA226
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Sukane KR-2
- Aircraft type
- Sukane KR-2
- 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
- N88PS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tucumcari Municipal Airport (TCC), Tucumcari, NMTo Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW), Winslow, AZ
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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); Wire, transmission
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A FLIGHT OF FOUR AIRCRAFT DEPARTED TUCUMCARI, NEW MEXICO, FOR WINSLOW, ARIZONA WITH N88PS ACTING AS FLIGHT LEAD. EN ROUTE WEATHER WAS ENCOUNTERED AND TWO OF THE NON INSTRUMENT RATED PILOTS RETURNED TO TUCUMCARI, THE ONE INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT OBTAINED AN IFR CLEARANCE AND CONTINUED THE FLIGHT. THE NON INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT OF N88PS CONTINUED IN VFR CRUISE AT A LOWER ALTITUDE. AS THE VISIBILITY WENT TO ZERO IN RAIN AND FOG, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A TRANSMISSION LINE AND DESCENDED UNCONTROLLED TO THE GROUND. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE PILOT OF N8575C HAD OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO THE DEPARTURE FROM TUCUMCARI. A SEARCH BY THE FAA FLIGHT SERVICE STATIONS AND AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PILOT OF N8575C REVEALED THAT AN OFFICIAL WEATHER BRIEFING HAD NOT BEEN OBTAINED. AREA FORECAST FOR PORTIONS OF ARIZONA AND NEW NEXICO INDICATED THUNDERSTORMS AND RAIN SHOWERS. THE NEAREST WEATHER REPORTING STATION AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO, WITH A CEILING OF 200 FEET OVERCAST AND A VISIBILITY OF ONE MILE WITH LIGHT RAIN AND FOG. LOCAL AUTHORIITES AT THE ACCIDENT SITE REPORTED THE VISIBILITY LESS THAN 1/8 MILE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT VFR FLIGHT INTO IMC AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE. FACTORS WERE FOG, RAIN, AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A WEATHER BRIEF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA226
- Event ID
- 20001211X13145
- Case number
- FTW93LA226
- 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: 67b4641cca6c6a0621938d5bd84066fb4f2bf4081bf35959646ecd7acb131a90; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:12:37.090Z.