DEN84FA307 · Rockwell 112TCA
Rockwell 112TCA · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Missoula Montana Airport (MSO) to Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84FA307
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Rockwell 112TCA
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell 112
- 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
- N4699W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Missoula Montana Airport (MSO), Missoula, MTTo Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW), Tacoma, WA
- 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 · climb to 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Wing › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD FILED AN IFR CLEARANCE. WHILE TAXIING TO TAKEOFF, HE REQUESTED AND RECEIVED A CLEARANCE TO CLIMB VFR ON COURSE, VIA VICTOR AIRWAY 2, WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO REPORT WHEN REACHING 10,000' MSL. THIS WAS THE LAST COMMUNICATION RECEIVED FROM THE PILOT. WHEN THE AIRCRAFT DID NOT ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED; HOWEVER, THE AIRCRAFT WAS NOT FOUND UNTIL 11/28/87, WHEN IT WAS DISCOVERED BY A HUNTER. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE AIRCRAFT HAD CRASHED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN ABOUT 14 MILES WEST OF MISSOULA, MT & 8 MILES SOUTH OF THE AIRWAY, WHILE IN A STEEP DESCENT. IMPACT OCCURRED AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 6400'. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE WAS FOUND. THE 1352 MST WEATHER AT MISSOULA WAS IN PART: 3000' SCATTERED, 4500' BROKEN, WITH MOUNTAINS PARTIALLY OBSCURRED IN CLOUDS AND ISOLATED SNOW SHOWERS. AN AIRMET WARNED OF OCCASIONAL MODERATE RIME ICE IN CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION ABOVE THE FREEZING LEVEL TO 15,000' AND OCCASIONAL MODERATE TURBULENCE BELOW 16,000'.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84FA307
- Event ID
- 20001214X39006
- Case number
- DEN84FA307
- 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: 2a86f86b6a5932998c7899840bf5dd2c01041b60643ae5cb1b79eb560acc07d2; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:37:13.622Z.