FTW93LA035 · Piper PA-23-150
Bridgeport FLT TRNG CTR Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Q24 · Levelland, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA035
- 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
Piper PA-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N2078P
- Operator
- Bridgeport FLT TRNG CTR
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q24 · Levelland, 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
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED WEATHER INFORMATION FOR THE RETURN FLIGHT THAT FORECAST CEILINGS BELOW VFR MINIMUMS WITH DRIZZLE AND FOG FROM A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT. HE PROCEEDED WITH THE FLIGHT AT LOW ALTITUDE AND ENCOUNTERED CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS WHICH RESULTED IN A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER. HE DIVERTED TO A NEAR BY AIRPORT WHERE EYEWITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE MANEUVERING AT AN ALTITUDE LESS THAN 200 FEET AGL AND MAKING SHARP LEFT TURNING MANEUVERS AROUND THE AIRPORT. THE EYEWITNESSES ALSO REPORTED OBSERVING THE AIRPLANE'S NOSE DROP BEFORE THE LEFT WING IMPACTED THE TERRAIN NEAR THE APPROACH END OF RUNWAY 17. IT WAS LATER DETERMINED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS ATTEMPTING TO LAND WITH A TAILWIND. ACCORDING TO A PASSENGER, THE PILOT HAD BOTH CARBURETOR HEAT CONTROLS ON DURING THE LOW LEVEL MANEUVERS TO KEEP THE RUNWAY IN SIGHT AND CONTINUED TO MANIPULATE THE POWER BEFORE THE AIRSPEED DROPPED AND THE STALL OCCURRED. THE TEMPERATURE OF 46 DEGREES F AND DEW POINT OF 43 DEGREES PLACED THE AIRPLANE IN SERIOUS ICING AT CRUISE POWER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED WHILE MANEUVERING FOR LANDING AND ALLOWED THE A/C TO STALL. FACTORS WERE THE LOW CEILINGS, THE PILOTS DISREGARD OF THE FORECAST WEATHER, THE CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS, AND THE PILOTS DELAYED APPLICATION OF CARBURETOR HEAT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA035
- Event ID
- 20001211X16037
- Case number
- FTW93LA035
- 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: 0213742af9c6b5a89b2f915da4d2e18278c6e0b597ae84a2f0b39a77676680cc; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:39:01.051Z.