FTW90LA038 · Piper PA-23-160
Bourland Field Piper PA-23-160 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90LA038
- 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
Piper PA-23-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N289RL
- Operator
- Bourland Field
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Dual student › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Directional control, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS BEING USED FOR MULTIENGINE INSTRUCTION. THE INSTRUCTOR SAID THEY WERE MAKING A TOUCH AND GO LANDING. HE SAID THE LANDING WAS NORMAL AND THE STUDENT CLEANED UP THE AIRPLANE. THE STUDENT APPLIED FULL POWER FOR TAKEOFF AND THE AIRPLANE YAWED LEFT. THE STUDENT OVERCORRECTED AND THE AIRPLANE YAWED EXTREMELY TO THE RIGHT. THE INSTRUCTOR TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AND ATTEMPTED TO GET DIRECTIONAL CONTROL BUT SAID THE RUDDER WAS NOT EFFECTIVE ENOUGH. THERE WERE NO BRAKES ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE AIRPLANE. THE INSTRUCTOR SAID HE HAD REDUCED THE POWER TO IDLE. THE AIRPLANE LEFT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, STRUCK TREES AND A FENCE AND FENCE POST, AND CAME TO A STOP APPROXIMATELY 300 YARDS OFF THE SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, IN A SHALLOW DEPRESSION. LATER THE PASSENGER IN THE REAR SEAT DID STATE THE INSTRUCTOR HAD REACHED FOR THE THROTTLES BUT ONLY CLOSED THE RIGHT ENGINE THROTTLE, AND THE LEFT ENGINE CEASED OPERATION AFTER IMPACT WITH A FENCE POST. NO PRE-IMPACT PROBLEMS COULD BE FOUND WITH THE AIRPLANE OR POWERPLANTS.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AND THE CFI'S INABILITY TO REGAIN CONTROL. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF BRAKES ON THE CFI'S SIDE OF THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90LA038
- Event ID
- 20001213X29806
- Case number
- FTW90LA038
- 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: 78f84152c0a9042e3a457c5997ace79f9c1f2a040667065df99658486a51c58c; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:57:23.166Z.