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FTW92LA117 · Cessna 310P

22 Apr 1992 · Austin, TX, United States

Stramel Aviation Cessna 310P · Accident: vortex turbulence encountered during landing

From Addison Airport (ADS) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW92LA117
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 310P

Aircraft type
Cessna 310
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
N5936M
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, 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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Vortex turbulence encountered
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

  • Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Approach/departure control service, improper
  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Control tower service, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE FLT HAD BEEN VECTORED FOR RUNWAY 13R BY APPROACH CONTROL FROM THE POINT OF INITIAL CONTACT. IT WAS THEN HANDED OFF TO TOWER; THERE WAS NO VERBAL COORDINATION BETWEEN APPROACH & TOWER. A MILITARY TRANSPORT HELICOPTER EXECUTED AN APPROACH TO THE SAME RUNWAY AHEAD OF THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE, AND TERMINATED AT ABOUT A 300-FT HOVER OVER THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT OF THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE REQUESTED VECTORS FOR SEPARATION; TOWER RESPONDED SEPARATION '...SHOULD BE JUST FINE....' SHORTLY THEREAFTER, WHILE THE AIRPLANE WAS OVER THE THRESHOLD OF RUNWAY 13R, THE PILOT REQUESTED CONFIRMATION THAT SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BEHIND THE HELICOPTER. THE TOWER RESPONDED '...YOU WERE CLEARED TO LAND ON THE LEFT RUNWAY.' THE PILOT RESPONDED 'OKAY UNDERSTAND WE WERE ONE THREE RIGHT.' AS THE AIRPLANE WAS FLARING, IT ENCOUNTERED VORTEX TURBULENCE FROM THE HELICOPTER AND CONTROL WAS LOST. THE TOWER NEVER ISSUED THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE A LANDING CLEARANCE TO EITHER RUNWAY, NOR WAS A CLEARANCE TO LAND REQUESTED BY THE PILOT.

Probable cause

THE APPROACH CONTROLLER'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY SEQUENCE ARRIVING TRAFFIC, AND THE TOWER CONTROLLER'S FAILURE TO SEQUENCE AND SEPARATE LANDING TRAFFIC. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A LANDING CLEARANCE AND THE NIGHT LIGHT CONDITIONS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW92LA117
Event ID
20001211X14431
Case number
FTW92LA117
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 1992-04-23.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 125fc5061b333078fa2b2c5291a845a34340fe36673f96205768e5a172c2b7fe; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:12:51.888Z.