FTW85FA054 · Bellanca 17-31ATC
Bellanca 17-31ATC · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From HO5 · Wilburton, OK to Aero Valley Airport (52F)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA054
- 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
- 1 · 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
Bellanca 17-31ATC
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N8222R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HO5 · Wilburton, OKTo Aero Valley Airport (52F), Roanoke, 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
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND AS THE PLT, WHO WAS NOT CURRENT FOR NIGHT/INSTRUMENT FLT, TRIED TO MANEUVER BENEATH A LOW OVERCAST ON A DARK NIGHT. ALTHOUGH SERIOUSLY INJURED DURING THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE, THE PLT WAS ABLE TO TELL RESCUE WORKERS THAT HE 'WAS TURNING AROUND AND JUST FLEW INTO THE GROUND.' THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS NOT LOCATED FOR APRX 3 HRS DUE TO POOR VIS. THE ACCIDENT TIME WAS POSSIBLY AS EARLY AS 1800 CST FROM ACFT PERFORMANCE PROJECTIONS AND THE EARLIEST CALLER REPORTING THE ACCIDENT CONTACTED COLLIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY AT 2121 CST AFTER A FARMER FOUND THE WRECKAGE. DURING THE ACFT GROUND BOUNCES/SLIDE AND BREAKUP, AN 80 LB DOG, HEAVILY SEDATED AND UNRESTRAINED, WAS THROWN FOWARD FROMA REAR SEAT AND POSSIBLY COLLIDED WITH THE RT FRONT SEAT PAX WHO WAS RESTRAINED BY A LAP BELT. FATAL INJURIES TO RIGHT FRONT SEAT PAX WERE CONSONANT WITH INSTRUMENT PANEL IMPACT AND A BLOW TO THE BACK AND HEAD. NO SHOULDER HARNESSES WERE AVAILABLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA054
- Event ID
- 20001214X41570
- Case number
- FTW85FA054
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1984-11-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 26ef2be9778a855d3d5045832f722981699530fd45d4bb6b1f1c98f75f15c3b3; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:14:49.773Z.