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MKC88FA119 · Cessna 320

7 Jul 1988 · Atwood, KS, United States

Cessna 320 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From BIC · Broomfield, CO to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
MKC88FA119
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
4 · 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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Cessna 320

Aircraft type
Cessna 320
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
N320DB
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From BIC · Broomfield, COTo 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
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
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
  • Pilot in command › In-flight weather advisories, disregarded
  • Weather condition › Lightning strike

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

NTSB narrative

THE PIC HAD DEPTD THE DENVER METRO AREA CARRYING PAX TO VACATION IN INDIANA. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED AND THERE WAS NO RECORD OF A PREFLT WX BRIEF. THE FLT PROGRSD WITHOUT ANY KNOWN DIFFICULTY UNTIL REACHING THE COLORODO/KANSAS BORDER. THE PIC RQSTD AND RCVD WX OBS FOR LOCATIONS AHEAD OF HIM, HAVING OBSVD A LGE AREA OF CLOUD BUILDUP. THE PIC WAS ADVISED OF LEVEL 2 RAIN SHOWERS WITH INBEDDED TSTM ACTIVITY ALONG THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY. NTAP DISPLAYED NO APPRECIABLE ALTERATION OF GND TRACK SUBSEQUENT TO THE WX BRIEF. HOWEVER THE (NTAP) DATA INDICATED LRGE CHANGES IN ALTITUDES, PSBLY INDICATING SEVERE TURBULENCE. THE LAST DATA INDICATED A 12,000 FT PER MIN DESCENT. THE ACFT IMPACTED INVERTED IN A FURROWED FIELD. EVIDENCE INDICATED LGTNG STRIKES TO THE COCKPIT AND WING AND A CABIN FIRE. RADAR DATA INDICATED THE ACFT PENETRATED AN AREA OF LVL FOUR TSTMS. PORTIONS OF THE ACFT WERE FOUND STREWN OVER A ONE MILE AREA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC88FA119
Event ID
20001213X26326
Case number
MKC88FA119
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: 5913fad630570eedc16105e1d0779a428e1375b5ae42bcb0bf0926e3e71bccda; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:39:24.214Z.