FTW90LA121 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 and Ryan ST-3KR · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90LA121
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N76728
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cavern City Air Terminal (CNM), Carlsbad, NMTo E35
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Ryan ST-3KR
- Aircraft type
- Ryan ST-3
- 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
- N48743
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cavern City Air Terminal (CNM), Carlsbad, NMTo E35
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FOUR ACFT DEPD CARLSBAD, NM, ON A FLT TO FABENS, TX. THE 1ST OF THE 4 ACFT TO ENTER THE TFC PATTERN AT FABENS WAS CESSNA 140, N76728. IT ENTERED THE PATTERN BEHIND A HIGH WING CESSNA (BORDER PATROL ACFT) THAT LANDED ON RWY 26. HOWEVER, SINCE THE WIND FAVORED RWY 8, THE 140 PLT 'PASSED OVER 26,' ENTERED A DOWNWIND FOR RWY 8 & ANNOUNCED HIS INTENTIONS ON THE UNICOM FREQ. WHEN THE BORDER PATROL ACFT CLRD RWY 26, THE 140 PLT CONTD HIS APCH TO LND ON RWY 8. HE ASSUMED THE PLTS OF THE OTHER 3 ACFT OF THE FLT WOULD FOLLOW HIM. THE 2ND ACFT OF THE FLT WAS A RYAN ST-3KR, N48743. THE RYAN PLT SAW THE HIGH WING CESSNA (BORDER PATROL ACFT) CLR RWY 26 & ELECTED TO LAND ON THAT RWY. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE CESSNA 140 & RYAN ST-3KR CONVERGED WHILE LANDING FROM OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. THE CESSNA 140 PLT SAW THE RYAN ST-3KR JUST BEFORE IMPACT, BUT NOT IN TIME TO AVOID A COLLISION.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PILOTS OF BOTH AIRCRAFT, WHICH RESULTED IN A FAILURE OF EACH PILOT TO SEE-AND-AVOID THE OTHER AIRCRAFT. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE RYAN ST-3KR PILOT TO MAKE TRAFFIC ADVIZORIES WHILE ENTERING THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AND APPROACHING TO LAND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90LA121
- Event ID
- 20001212X23426
- Case number
- FTW90LA121
- 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: d54eca537e6acfaef4977469be7cbf5c4dc6a4816fc5faa178f7d7bac3fb0d7e; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:52:36.450Z.