FTW90LA104 · Ryan NAVION A
Ryan NAVION A · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From TX12 to F67 · Arlington, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90LA104
- 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
Ryan NAVION A
- Aircraft type
- Ryan NAVION
- 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
- N4442K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From TX12To F67 · Arlington, 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft performance, takeoff capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE DAY WAS HOT AND HUMID. FIELD ELEVATION WAS 705 FEET. DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS 2,700 FEET. THERE WAS A LIGHT WIND FROM THE NORTH, AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO TAKE OFF UPHILL, TO THE NORTH. THE GRASS RUNWAY HAD PREVIOUSLY HAD SEVERAL DAYS OF HEAVY RAIN, BUT THE WEATHER HAD BEEN CLEAR FOR THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS. THE PILOT SAID HE LIFTED OFF EARLY BUT CONTROL WAS MUSHY SO HE PUT THE NOSE DOWN, AND THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON THE RUNWAY. PILOT KEPT THE NOSE DOWN TO ACCELERATE ENOUGH TO GET OVER THE TREES. PILOT LIFTED THE AIRPLANE OFF AT THE LAST MOMENT, BUT THE RIGHT WING HIT A TREE. THE AIRPLANE ROTATED 180 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT AND ENTERED THE WOODED AREA TAIL FIRST. IMPACT TREES WERE 200 FEET PAST THE END OF THE 2,000 FOOT RUNWAY.
Probable cause
PILOT'S ATTEMPTED TAKEOFF WITH CONDITIONS IN EXCESS OF THE AIRPLANE'S PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE AND THE UPHILL RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90LA104
- Event ID
- 20001212X22932
- Case number
- FTW90LA104
- 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: 4bab6de5ea429f1246c3aeb20faa189363b1a134d2379b638f34279fde2c1a85; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:24:07.968Z.