BFO85FA004 · de Havilland DH 82 TIGER MOTH DH 82 TIGE
de Havilland DH 82 TIGER MOTH DH 82 TIGE · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Mexico Farms Airport (1W3) to Harrison County Airport (8G6)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85FA004
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
de Havilland DH 82 TIGER MOTH DH 82 TIGE
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DH-82
- 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
- N172VF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mexico Farms Airport (1W3), Cumberland, MDTo Harrison County Airport (8G6), Cadiz, OH
- 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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/spin
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, delayed
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, attempted
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT WAS THE FINAL LEG OF A FLT FROM WINCHESTER, VA THAT HAD BEEN DISCONTINUED THE DAY BEFORE DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS. TWO WEATHER BRIEFINGS WERE OBTAINED ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT, BOTH OF WHICH INCLUDED THE STATEMENT THAT VFR FLIGHT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THE PROPOSED ROUTE OF FLIGHT ALONG INTERSTATE 48. THE PLT STATED TO A FRIEND THAT THE WEATHER LOOKED 'TERRIBLE' BUT WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO GET HOME, AND THAT SHE WOULD TURN AROUND IF POOR WEATHER WAS ENCOUNTERED. WITNESSES TRAVELING WEST ON ROUTE 48 SAY THE ACFT AT APRX 400 FT AS IT FLEW BELOW THE OVERCAST OBSCURING THE HILLTOPS. THE CEILING LOWERED IN THE VICINITY OF THE ACCIDENT SITE AND WITNESSES OBSVD THE ACFT IN A STEEP LEFT BANK 50 TO 60 FT ABOVE THE GRND. THE NOSE PITCHED SHARPLY DOWNWARD AND THE ACFT STRUCK AND CAME TO REST ON A HIGHWAY ACCESS RAMP. A FIRE ENSUED. FOG AND RAIN SUBSEQUENTLY ENVELOPED THE SITE PRECLUDING A MEDEVAC HELO LANDING ON SCENE. THE PLT SUCCUMBED TO INJURIES IN A HOSPITAL ABOUT 8 HRS AFTER THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85FA004
- Event ID
- 20001214X41290
- Case number
- BFO85FA004
- 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: 304228c59855536b8d42b9ee32035c6911c94d3ed74f10defb5522e822c1b105; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:16:13.487Z.