FTW91FA027 · Cessna 421B
Cessna 421B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Muskogee-Davis Regional Airport (MKO) to Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA027
- 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
- 6 · 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 421B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N421H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Muskogee-Davis Regional Airport (MKO)To Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, NM
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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 › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Muskogee, OK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A PLT (WHOSE INSTRUMENT CURRENCY COULD NOT BE DTRMD) TOOK OFF AT NGT IN IMC. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ACFT CRASHED ABT 1.5 MI FM THE DEP END OF THE RWY. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT IT IMPACTED IN AN 85 DEG RGT BANK, NOSE DWN ATTITUDE AT HI SPEED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE WAS FND DRG THE INVESTIGATION; HOWEVER, DRG A PRE-PURCHASE INSPN ON 10/16/90, SVRL DISCREPANCIES WERE NOTED. THESE INCLUDED AN INOP FLT DRCTR, AN AUTOPLT MALFUNCTION & A MISRIGGED FLT CTL SYS THAT ALLOWED THE CTRL WHEEL TO INDC A LEFT TURN WHEN THE ACFT WAS IN LVL FLT. THERE WAS NO RECORD OF THESE BEING REPAIRED. RECORDS SHOWED THE PITOT-STATIC SYS WAS LAST TESTED ON 3/24/88. THE PLT WAS TAKING SINE-AID & TYLENOL FOR A CHRONIC SINUS INFECTION. ALTHOUGH TOX CHECKS INDCD THE PRESENCE OF 50.7 UG/ML OF PSEUDOEPHEDRINE & 36.4 UG/ML OF ACETAMINOPHEN IN THE PLT'S URINE, NONE WAS FOUND IN HIS BLOOD. THE SINUS COND COULD HAVE AFFECTED THE PLT'S BALANCE & EQUILIBRIUM.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, DUE TO SPATIAL DISORIENTATION. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE PILOT'S PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT FROM THE CHRONIC SINUS INFECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA027
- Event ID
- 20001212X16312
- Case number
- FTW91FA027
- 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 1991-01-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b2e34840133492c7a1963e658fdea2e9d6c7c254bcdb05e517d29f224e7d2d79; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:01:51.712Z.