FTW94FA038 · Cessna T303
Cessna T303 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From F54 · Arlington, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA038
- 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
- 2 · 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
Cessna T303
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 303
- 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
- N2297C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F54 · Arlington, TXTo 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 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT DEPARTED ON A NIGHT IFR CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT INTO FORECASTED ICING CONDITIONS. DURING THE APPROACH AT HIS DESTINATION AIRPORT, THE PILOT REQUESTED LOWER ALTITUDE TO ATTEMPT TO BREAKOUT FROM THE WEATHER. AFTER BEING ASSIGNED 3,100 FEET AND OBTAINING A CLEARANCE FOR THE ILS APPROACH, THE PILOT CANCELLED IFR DURING DESCENT AND PROCEEDED VISUALLY FOR THE AIRPORT. THE AIRCRAFT OPERATED IN AN AREA OF REPORTED FREEZING RAIN AND ICE PELLETS, WITH FOG AND DRIZZLE. CONTROL WAS LOST DURING THE TURN FROM BASE TO FINAL APPROACH.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONTINUED FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE ENSUING INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS WERE THE ICING CONDITIONS, THE FOG, THE DRIZZLE, THE DARK NIGHT LIGHT CONDITIONS, AND THE PILOT'S DISREGARD FOR THE FORECASTED WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA038
- Event ID
- 20001211X13730
- Case number
- FTW94FA038
- 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 1993-11-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f218574a19ea8d565551ec6a9ae2e812d2e42c41d773606a3cb11dbe262b1036; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:18:29.875Z.