FTW85LA133 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: uncontrolled altitude deviation on approach
From Bartlesville Municipal Airport (BVO) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85LA133
- 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-28-181
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N7068C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bartlesville Municipal Airport (BVO), Bartlesville, OKTo 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
- 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
- Uncontrolled altitude deviation
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Lack of recent experience in type operation
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER ONE UNEVENTFUL FULL-STOP LANDING THE PLT RE-ENTERED THE PATTERN FOR A SECOND LANDING. THE PLT TRUNED TO FINAL AT ABOUT 500 FT AGL AND 65-70 KTS WITH THE RWY LIGHTS IN SIGHT. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE LANDING LIGHT ILLUMINATED TWO TREES. A RIGHT TURN WAS INITIATED BUT THE LEFT WING STRUCK ONE OF THE TREES 20 TO 30 FT AGL. THE ACFT DESCENDED OUT OF CONTROL TO THE GROUND APROX 1/4 NORTH OF THE ARPT. THE PLT STATED THAT THE PURPOSE OF THE FLT WAS TO ACCOMPLISH 3 TAKE-OFFS AND LANDINGS AT NIGHT IN ORDER TO SATISFY FAR CURRENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR CARRYING PAX. HE FURTHER RELATED THAT NIGHT INSTRUCTION FROM A CFI IN THE PAST YEAR COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85LA133
- Event ID
- 20001214X35908
- Case number
- FTW85LA133
- 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 1985-03-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 59c1bd34a699b54d21e1adfa97891e1aa350b2308f1ba5f2f1e131e0d786b989; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:57:02.595Z.