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FTW92FA163 · Piper PA-28R-180

17 Jun 1992 · Bethany, OK, United States

Piper PA-28R-180 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

From Sundance Airpark (HSD) to Wiley Post Airport (PWA)

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Event

NTSB case
FTW92FA163
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
1 · 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

Piper PA-28R-180

Aircraft type
Piper PA-28
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
N7419J
Operator
Johnson, Joe W. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Sundance Airpark (HSD), Oklahoma City, OKTo Wiley Post Airport (PWA), Bethany, OK
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 final
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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

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

NTSB narrative

A PRIVATE PILOT WAS OBSERVED BY WITNESSES MAKING AN STRAIGHT IN VISUAL APPROACH. AFTER THE AIRPLANE CROSSED THE LANDING THRESHOLD IN THE LANDING CONFIGURATION, RIGHT CLIMBING TURN WAS INITIATED AS ENGINE POWER WAS APPLIED. PRIOR TO REVERSING DIRECTION, STILL IN THE LANDING CONFIGURATION, THE NOSE WAS OBSERVED DROPPING TOWARDS THE GROUND AND THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A NOSE DOWN, RIGHT WING LOW ATTITUDE. THE INVESTIGATION FAILED TO FIND ANY ANOMALIES WITH THE AIRFRAME AND COMPONENTS. THE AUTOPSY FAILED TO SHOW ANY PREEXISTING DISEASE THAT COULD HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE LOSS OF CONTROL. WEATHER AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS CLEAR WITH HEADWINDS OF 19 KNOTS GUSTING TO 25 KNOTS.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. THE GUSTY WIND WAS A FACTOR.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW92FA163
Event ID
20001211X14857
Case number
FTW92FA163
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: e33311d999eb3d3964c0a6b89767b0e301487e0db9ed31fb1dd3cac1357f9ab0; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:06:56.251Z.