FTW85FQG03 · Piper PA-25-235
Piper PA-25-235 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Morton, TX to Morton, TX
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FQG03
- 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
- 1 · 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-25-235
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-25
- 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
- N4708Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morton, TXTo Morton, 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE PLT COMPLETED A SWATH RUN, THE ACFT ENTERED A RGT CLIMBING MANEUVER, THEN ROLLED WINGS LEVEL. AFTER THAT, IT REPORTEDLY BEGAN AN ABRUPT CLIMB FOR APRX 50 TO 60 FT, THEN NOSED DOWN & CRASHED IN A STEEP DESCENT. AFTER IMPACT, THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE & THE PLT RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES FROM IMPACT, CHEMICALS & FIRE. A PERSON ON THE GROUND RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES TO HIS HANDS WHILE PULLING THE PLT FROM THE ACFT. A TOXICOLOGY CHECK OF THE PLT'S BLOOD SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.179%. ALSO, MARIJUANA WAS DETECTED IN AN ALCOHOL SWAB. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT OR ENG WAS FOUND. ON THE DATE OF THE PLT'S LAST MEDICAL EXAM (7/31/84), HE CERTIFIED HE HAD 350 HRS TOTAL FLT TIME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FQG03
- Event ID
- 20001214X37474
- Case number
- FTW85FQG03
- 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: 3c67ca847e7ba601612a0485e2362703864467a6bd1791e48012b8916ddc6165; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:52:01.467Z.