FTW93FA039 · Cessna 172M
Wood Co. Pilot'S Assoc Cessna 172M · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Hawthorne Field (45R) to Easterwood Field (CLL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93FA039
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N9323H
- Operator
- Wood Co. Pilot'S Assoc
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hawthorne Field (45R), Kountze, TXTo Easterwood Field (CLL), Bryan, TX
- 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); Tree(s)
- 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 › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH 25-30 FT HIGH TREE IN A PASTURE, AND THEN IMPACTED THE GROUND AND CARTWHEELED. THE PROPERTY OWNER WHO HEARD THE IMPACT STATED THAT THE WX WAS LOW OVERCAST, DRIZZLE AND FOG. ACCORDING TO FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF THE PILOT, HE WAS DEPRESSED OVER A DIVORCE AND WAS UNDERGOING MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION. DURING THE EVENING PRECEDING THE ACCIDENT, THE PILOT HAD BEEN OBSERVED CIRCLING A TOWN AT LOW ALTITUDE. HE WAS MET AT THE AIRPORT BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER WHO REPORTED THAT THE PILOT APPEARED TO BE IMPAIRED. THE PILOT WAS GIVEN THE OPTION OF CHECKING INTO A MOTEL OR GOING TO JAIL FOR PUBLIC INTOXICATION; THE PILOT CHECKED INTO A MOTEL. THE PILOT'S TOXICOLOGY TESTS AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED BLOOD ETHANOL CONCENTRATION OF 156 MG/DL. IN ADDITION, A 0.283 UG/ML LEVEL OF SERTRALINE (TRANQUILIZER) WAS DETECTED IN THE BLOOD SAMPLES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INTENTIONAL FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS AS A RESULT OF HIS ALCOHOLIC AND DRUG IMPAIRMENT OF EFFICIENCY AND JUDGEMENT. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN WEATHER INFORMATION, THE DARK NIGHT AND EXISTING WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93FA039
- Event ID
- 20001211X16032
- Case number
- FTW93FA039
- 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 1992-11-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 159233755cd9628fa707bd33dd6d6a92c652ca2b32813f376644dca3249b3ad1; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:49:10.346Z.