FTW87FA206 · Cessna U206G
Global Aircraft Cessna U206G and Piper PA-34-200 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW87FA206
- 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
- 3 · 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 U206G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 206
- 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
- N4745U
- Operator
- Global Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5R5 · Wharton, TXTo Wiley Post Airport (PWA), Oklahoma City, OK
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-34-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N1038U
- Operator
- Jimmy L. Turner · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5R5 · Wharton, TXTo Wiley Post Airport (PWA), Oklahoma City, OK
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CESSNA AIRCRAFT, N4745U, DEPARTED FROM RUNWAY 32 AT THE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, WHARTON, TEXAS, ON A NORTHBOUND FLIGHT, ABOUT TWO MINUTES AHEAD OF THE PIPER AIRCRAFT, N1038U. ABOUT 10 MINUTES LATER THE TWO AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A MID-AIR COLLISION ABOUT 16 NAUTICAL MILES NORTH-NORTHWEST OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. EVIDENCE REVEALED THAT THE CESSNA WAS OVERTAKING THE PIPER AT THE TIME OF IMPACT. INITIAL CONTACT OCCURRED WHILE THE LONGITUDINAL AXES OF THE TWO AIRCRAFT WERE ABOUT PARALLEL AND THEIR MAGNETIC HEADINGS WERE NEAR THE SAME. THE LONGITUDINAL CENTERLINE OF THE PIPER WAS SLIGHTLY ABOVE AND SLIGHTLY RIGHT OF THAT OF THE CESSNA, HOWEVER, IT WAS MOVING SLIGHTLY LEFT IN RELATION TO THE CESSNA'S FLIGHT PATH. UPON IMPACT THE CESSNA PITCHED UP AND OVER THE PIPER. HOWEVER, ITS WEAKENED FUSELAGE (DUE TO NUMEROUS SLASHES FROM THE PIPER'S LEFT PROPELLER) FOLDED AND SEPARATED. THE SEPARATED SECTION REMAINED UNDER THE PIPER'S LEFT WING THROUGHOUT THE REMAINDER OF THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW87FA206
- Event ID
- 20001213X31805
- Case number
- FTW87FA206
- 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: 0603133f018de06c8f6e251b27210ca56ce7be43db25a64a1b7945972e7b5b2d; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:01:11.906Z.