FTW88DRD03 · Cessna 188
Cessna 188 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88DRD03
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna 188
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 188
- 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
- N78392
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 › Impairment(alcohol)
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Winnsboro, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS PRACTICING AERIAL APPLICATION MANEUVERS WITH BETWEEN 20 TO 40 GALLONS OF WATER IN THE SPRAY TANKS. A WITNESS INDICATED THAT 'AS THE AIRPLANE STARTED DOWN FOR THE PASS IT CLEARLY WENT INTO A FLAT SPIN IN WHICH IT MADE ALMOST 2 FULL REVOLUTIONS BEFORE IT HIT THE GROUND AT WHAT LOOKED TO BE APPROX 45 DEGREE ANGLE.' BLOOD SAMPLES TAKEN FROM THE PILOT SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT INDICATED A BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL OF .166 PERCENT AND URINE ALCOHOL OF 0.20 PERCENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88DRD03
- Event ID
- 20001213X25683
- Case number
- FTW88DRD03
- 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: 81e709043814b3e977759c537ffa2ba8dc4d4dbec7d89e594fdb490f4ec84487; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:43:25.287Z.