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FTW90FA100 · Learjet 25D

25 Apr 1990 · Uvalde, TX, United States

Learjet 25D · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to Francisco Sarabia Tinoco International Airport (MMTC)

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Event

NTSB case
FTW90FA100
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

Learjet 25D

Aircraft type
Learjet 25
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
XAROZ
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, TXTo Francisco Sarabia Tinoco International Airport (MMTC), Torreon
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
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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

THE FLT CREW ENCTRD SVR TURBC IN CRUISE FLT AT FL410, OVER A VIP LVL 4 TO 5 THUNDERSTORM. THE #2 ENG FLAMED OUT, THOUGH CONTINUOUS IGNITION HAD BEEN SELECTED. AFTER THE FLAME-OUT, THE ACFT STARTED TO DSCND & THE CREW BGN TO DIVERT TO A NRBY ARPT. DRG THE DSCNT, THE ACFT ENCTRD LARGE HAIL, HVY RAIN, SVR TURBC, LIGHTNING & ST ELMOS FIRE. THE OTR ENG FLAMED OUT AS THE ACFT WAS DSCNDG THRU FL330 (PRESUMABLY DUE TO HAIL & WATER INGESTION). ATTEMPTED AIR STARTS (BOTH WINDMILLING & STARTER ASSISTED) WERE UNSUCCESSFUL; INTERIOR LGTS BCM EXTREMELY DIM DRG STARTER ASSISTED ATMTS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT WAS DMGD DRG A LNDG IN A WHEAT FLD. INV REVEALED THE CREW DID NOT RCV A WX BRIEFING BFR THE FLT. THERE WAS A CONVECTIVE SIGMET (6C) & AN ALERT WX WARNING (AWW 163), WHICH WERE ACTIVE FOR THE AREA. ACCORDING TO A WX STUDY, THERE WAS A SVR THUNDERSTORM, TOPPED AT OR NR FL410, MDT TO SVR UP/DWNDFTS, LARGE HAIL, HVY RAIN, STRONG WIND GUSTS, AND AIRFRAME ICING ABV 12,000' MSL. ALL FRONTAL AREAS OF THE ACFT RCVD MDT TO SVR HAIL DMG.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO OBTAIN A PRE-FLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFING, AND HIS IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION, WHICH RESULTED IN AN IN-FLIGHT ENCOUNTER WITH SEVERE WEATHER AND SUBSEQUENT ENGINE FLAMEOUTS. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, THE SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN IN THE FORCED LANDING AREA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW90FA100
Event ID
20001212X22923
Case number
FTW90FA100
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 1990-04-26.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 24468eeb72950103ddb3232c0b83cc5ae4f41274cf92c97c435972d7b5f90770; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:25:14.106Z.