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FTW87FA213 · Partenavia P68C

11 Sept 1987 · New Orleans, LA, United States

Partenavia P68C · Accident: undershoot on approach

From OR9 · Hammond, LA to Lakefront Airport (NEW)

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Event

NTSB case
FTW87FA213
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

Partenavia P68C

Aircraft type
Partenavia P68
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
N1352W
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From OR9 · Hammond, LATo Lakefront Airport (NEW)
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Undershoot
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 › Altitude, misjudged
  • Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command › Unsafe/hazardous condition warning, disregarded

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

NTSB narrative

THE PLT BEGAN AN ILS RWY 18R APCH AT NGT TO THE LAKEFRONT ARPT. HE RPRTD THAT AFTER THE ACFT BROKE OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT 1700', HE TRANSITIONED TO A VISUAL APCH. HE STATED THAT AS HE CONTD, THE APCH SEEMED NORMAL, EXCEPT THE VASI LIGHTS SEEMED TOO FAR DOWN THE RWY. HE REMEMBERED THAT JUST BEFORE IMPACT, THE VASI WAS PROVIDING A RED OVER RED INDCN, BUT HE DID NOT WORRY AS HE PERCEIVED THE ACFT WAS OVER THE END OF THE RWY & HE WAS ABOUT TO FLARE. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE ACFT IMPACTED WITH WATER, WELL SHORT OF THE RWY. AS THE ACFT SANK, THE PLT ESCAPED THRU A HOLE IN THE WINDSHIELD. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE WAS FOUND BY PASSING FISHERMEN. THE PLT BELIEVED HE HAD GOTTEN A FALSE PERCEPTION OF THE RWY LOCATION DUE TO REFLECTION OF LIGHTS OFF OF CALM LAKE WATER.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW87FA213
Event ID
20001213X32082
Case number
FTW87FA213
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: be67a0d60c889e6da8885bf8933d7680cb654a4fa1696a2c87dba0b5227af5f5; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:20:09.224Z.