FTW87FA064 · Cessna 210N
Cessna 210N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From A L Mangham Jr. Regional Airport (OCH) to Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW87FA064
- 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
- 2 · 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 210N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N6497N
- Operator
- Kenneth P. Barton · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From A L Mangham Jr. Regional Airport (OCH), Nacogdoches, TXTo Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, 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
- En route · climb to 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, performed
- Pilot in command › Inadequate initial training
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Weather condition › Fog
- Weather condition › Low ceiling
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACFT WAS DESTROYED WHEN IT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN AN UNCONTROLLED ATTITUDE AT HIGH SPEED. THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PVT PLT HAD FILED IFR AND DEPARTED INTO M80VC 5 L-F WEATHER WITH TOPS ABOVE 8,000'. ABOUT 20 MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE, THE PLT REPORTED TO THE CONTROLLER THAT HE WAS EXPERIENCEING INSTRUMENT PROBLEMS. SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE PLT BECAME TOTALLY DISORIENTED AND ENTERED AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT. INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL AN MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION ON THE ACFT, ENGINE OR INSTRUMENT SYSTEMS. ATC TRANSCRIPTS INDICATED THAT THE PLT WAS UNFAMILIAR WITH IFR PROCEDURES AND TECHNIQUES AND THAT HE APPEARED TO BE CONFUSED ABOUT THE CLEARANCE AND HOW TO EXECUTE IT. THE PLT'S LAST IFR INSTRUCTION HAD BEEN ALMOST 2 YEARS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW87FA064
- Event ID
- 20001213X30230
- Case number
- FTW87FA064
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-02-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7a50a34934f27096060e4c6e62f167494a6a832e3eafc8b6646b66e4c35654d0; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:14:14.867Z.