DEN84MA247 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA) to Casper-Natrona County International Airport (CPR)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84MA247
- 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
- 3 · 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
Cessna 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N6231G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA), Amarillo, TXTo Casper-Natrona County International Airport (CPR), Casper, WY
- 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 · 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- 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
DURING A PREFLT WX BRIEFING, THE PLT WAS ADVISED OF THUNDERSTORMS & INTENSE RAIN SHOWERS ON THE ROUTE OF FLT. HOWEVER, HE FILED AN IFR FLT PLAN & TOOK OFF. DURING FLT, THE ATC CONTROLLER ADVISED THE PLT OF A LEVEL 6 CELL AHEAD & NOTED THAT HE HAD NO REPORT ON ITS TOP. THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE WAS 'NOT SHOWING ANYTHING' ON HIS RADAR. ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO DEVIATE. APRX 20 MIN LATER, THE PLT REPORTED THE ACFT WAS ENCOUNTERING ICING CONDITIONS & WAS LOSING ALT. AFTER ANOTHER 1 MIN & 38 SEC, HE REPORTED 'WE'RE GOING IN.' SUBSEQUENTLY, AN IN-FLT BREAKUP OCCURRED. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND SCATTERED OVER A 1/2 MI AREA. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT THE OUTBOARD WING PANELS HAD FAILED IN FLT. WITNESSES REPORTED SEEING EITHER SMOKE OR FIRE IN FLT BEFORE THE ACFT CRASHED. EVIDENCE OF AN ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE WAS FOUND ON THE OUTBOARD PORTION OF THE RIGHT WING. HOWEVER, THE PLT HAD NOT MENTIONED ANY ENCOUNTER WITH LIGHTNING ON THIS FLT. NO EVIDENCE OF METAL FATIGUE WAS FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84MA247
- Event ID
- 20001214X40696
- Case number
- DEN84MA247
- 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: 90180fe2acf8d138006fffe35c2d17cd27d9d095ca4ceae4f4abe84a9f3e5969; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:24:47.229Z.