FTW86FA027 · Cessna 172B
Cessna 172B and Pitts S-2B · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW86FA027
- 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
- 2 · 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N6876X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mag Drop Airport (20TA), Paris, TXTo 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Pitts S-2B
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-2
- 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
- N5305A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PLS · Palestine, TXTo 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 base
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual separation, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual separation, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Caddo Mills, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
MID-AIR OCCURRED AT UNCONTROLLED ARPT WITH THE S-2B EXECUTING RT TRAFFIC, AS PUBLISHED, AND THE C-172 EXECUTING A LONG FINAL OR AN ARCING LFT TURN TO FINAL. BOTH ACFT WERE ATTEMPTING TO LAND ON RWY 17R. ACDT OCCURRED DURING LATE AFTERNOON AND THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE SUN GLARE. THE S-2B CAME OUT OF THE SUN AND COLLIDED WITH THE RT SIDE OF THE C-172 EMPENNAGE, CAUSING THE TAIL TO SEVER. AT THE TIME, C-172 WAS WINGS LEVEL IN A SLIGHT DESCENT, S-2B WAS IN A RT BANK, SLIGHT NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE, DESCENDING. C-172 CRASHED IN AN OPEN FLD AND S-2B REGAINED CONTROL AND LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER DAMAGE. WITNESSES STATED THAT C-172 DID NOT TAKE EVASIVE ACTION AND PLT'S IN S-2B STATED THAT THEY DID NOT SEE THE C-172 UNTIL AFTER THE COLLISION. ARPT MGR DID NOT RECALL HEARING EITHER ACFT TRANSMIT ON UNICOM. SUN GLARE WOULD HAVE MADE ACQUISITION OF S-2B DIFFICULT FOR C-172 AND RESTRICTED VISIBILITY OUT OF S-2B AFFECTED VISUAL ACQUISITION OF C-172 BY IT'S PILOTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW86FA027
- Event ID
- 20001214X38412
- Case number
- FTW86FA027
- 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: 091b5edae8abcdc928c6eb9b087671ce072d7a16f3c6926f443418e1e9a0c45a; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:43:27.962Z.