FTW85LA337 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: nose down during takeoff
From Bud Dryden Airport (TX05) to Houston Airpark (21XS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85LA337
- 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
- N8043C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bud Dryden Airport (TX05), McKinney, TXTo Houston Airpark (21XS), Big Spring, 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 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Nose down
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Sabotage, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THERE WERE NO KNOWN EYE WITNESSES TO THE ACCIDENT. AVAILABLE EVIDENCE REVEALS THAT THE PILOT MOST PROBABLY MADE A SUCCESSFUL LANDING IN THE REMOTELY LOCATED FIELD AND ROLLED TO A STOP. THE SHERIFF REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE OIL WAS DRAINED ONTO THE GROUND AT THIS POINT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS THEN TAXIED BACK 1300 FEET AND MADE ANOTHER TURN AND STOPPED. THE CONTROLWHEEL WAS FOUND TIED IN THE REAR POSITION WITH THE SEAT BELT. THE PILOT APPARENTLY CLIMBED ONTO THE LEFT WING, OPENED THE THROTTLE BY REACHING THROUGH THE OPENING CREATED BY THE MISSING LEFT COCKPIT WINDOW AND JUMPED OFF ONTO THE GROUND AND APPARENTLY WAS HIT WITH THE LEFT STABILATOR. THE AIRCRAFT TRAVELED ABOUT 50 YARDS BEFORE VEERING RIGHT INTO ROUGH TERRAIN AND STOPPED. THE PILOT REPORTEDLY CALLED THE MITCHELL COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE, REPORTED THE ACCIDENT AND STATED THAT HE WAS INJURED. THE PHONE WHICH HE REPORTEDLY USED WAS LOCATED SEVERAL MILES FROM THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE PILOT THEN DISAPPEARED AND HIS WHEREABOUTS IS STILL UNKNOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85LA337
- Event ID
- 20001214X37783
- Case number
- FTW85LA337
- 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: 947126695dab56706071dce8812c3dc295f36384ed8dba4bc7c7a6dde34d2393; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:10:17.866Z.