FTW85FA131 · Piper PA-34-220T PA-34-22OT
Piper PA-34-220T PA-34-22OT · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA131
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-34-220T PA-34-22OT
- 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
- N8160K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, TXTo Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), FT SMITH, AR
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Design stress limits of aircraft › Exceeded
- Flight control, stabilator › Failure, total
- Fuselage, cargo compartment › Disintegrated
- Wing, spar › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT FILED A VFR FLT PLAN AFTER THE WX IMPROVED FROM IFR TO VFR WITH A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS EN ROUTE. OCNL MOD TURBULENCE BELOW 5000 FT WAS FORCAST DUE TO STRONG/GUSTY LOW LVL WNDS. WHILE THE ACFT WAS EN ROUTE, A GND WITNESS HEARD THE ENGS REV UP MORE THAN NORMAL, THEN HE SAW THE ACFT ON A NORTHERLY HEADING. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, HE HEARD A LOUD NOISE& SAW 2 OR MORE PIECES SEPARATE FROM THE ACFT. IT THEN ENTERED AN UNCONTROLLED DSCNT & CRASHED. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE ACFT SUFFERED AN IN-FLT SEPARATION OF THE FIBERGLASS NOSE ASSEMBLY, THAT PORTIONS OF THE SEPARATED NOSE STRUCK THE STABILATOR & THAT A DAMAGED AREA ON THE RT STABILATOR ACTED AS A TRIM TAB & CAUSED A PITCH-UP OF SUFFICIENT MAGNITUDE TOCAUSE POSITIVE BENDING IN THE WINGS. THE LOADING ON THE STABILATORS CAUSED THEM TO FAIL IN NEG BENDING. THE ACFT THEN ENTERED A DESCENDING COUNTER-CLOCKWISE SPIN WHICH CONTINUED UNTIL GROUND IMPACT OCCURRED. PARTS OF THE ACFT & ITS CONTENTS SEPARATED & DESCENDED IN SCATTERED FRAGMENTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA131
- Event ID
- 20001214X35899
- Case number
- FTW85FA131
- 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: 3848505541ec72509fb855c712da4811caf5e12ea4b300cf0fbd1b6873dfb9bd; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:07:32.695Z.