FTW92FA015 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Cotulla-La Salle County Airport (COT) to Houston Southwest Airport (AXH)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92FA015
- 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
Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N6307Y
- Operator
- Maze, Roy H. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cotulla-La Salle County Airport (COT)To Houston Southwest Airport (AXH), Houston, 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT TOOK OFF ON A DARK NIGHT FROM RWY 13, WHICH HAD FEW VISUAL REFERENCES OFF THE DEP END. HE RPRTD THAT AFTER CLIMBING TO ABOUT 800 TO 1000 FT, THERE WAS A LOSS OF INSTRUMENT LIGHTING FOR THE HSI, ATTITUDE INDCR, ALTIMETER & VERTICAL SPEED INDCR. THE PSGR (HIS WIFE) HELD A FLASHLIGHT IN AN ATTEMPT TO ILLUMINATE THE EFFECTED INSTRUMENTS. HE ENGAGED THE HEADING HOLD (2 TIMES) & THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP DSCNDG LEFT TURN. REALIZING THE ACFT HAD ENTERED A STEEP DSCNT, HE PULLED THE YOKE AFT, BUT THE ACFT IMPACTED THE TERRAIN. BOTH OCCUPANTS WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED, BUT THE PSGR NOTIFIED THE ARPT MANAGER OF THE ACDNT & A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. DRG THE INVESTIGATION, NO DISCREPANCY WITH THE AUTOPLT WAS VERIFIED, BUT A SHORT WAS FOUND AT A SPLICE IN THE INSTRUMENT LIGHTING SYSTEM.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, AND A SHORT IN THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM WHICH RESULTED IN PARTIAL FAILURE OF THE INSTRUMENT LIGHTS AND A MALFUNCTION OF THE AUTOPILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92FA015
- Event ID
- 20001212X18290
- Case number
- FTW92FA015
- 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 1991-10-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 70c32b9a0dd457b882921aec14efede12bcb6c7fe3fe4e554723d84ea9138111; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:15:05.209Z.