FTW85FA065 · Cessna 182B
Cessna 182B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE) to Brownsville, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA065
- 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
Cessna 182B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N2406G
- Operator
- Matt Howell
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE), McAllen, TXTo Brownsville, 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
- 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
- Guy wire; Wire, transmission
- 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, performed
- Pilot in command › Self-induced pressure
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Brownsville, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT HIT THE STABILIZATION WIRES ON A 300 FT FM RADIO TRANSMISSION TOWER FOLLOWED BY A COLLISION WITH POWER- LINES. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE PLT & PASSG WERE ENROUTE TO THE BROWNSVILLE, TX, AIRPORT TO FLY A DC-3 CARGO ACFT TO MEXICO. AT 1453 CST, N2405G, CALLED BROWNSVILLE TOWER FROM 12 MILES WEST INBOUND, REQUESTING WX INFORMATION. N2406G ACKNOWLEDGED FLYING IN IFR WX CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME. THE TOWER REQUESTED THE PLT'S INTENTIONS & INFORMED HIM THAT IF AN IFR CLEARANCE WAS REQUESTED N2406G WAS ADVISED TO CONTACT APPROACH CONTROL ON FREQUENCY 119.5. THERE WERE NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE ACFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA065
- Event ID
- 20001214X41773
- Case number
- FTW85FA065
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: d1dff951aced2c3c0c67ad87f55f234aac31ad78cc8fb5585ba6b7954b0db0d5; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:13:48.580Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states "THE PLT & PASSG WERE ENROUTE TO THE BROWNSVILLE, TX, AIRPORT TO FLY A DC-3 CARGO ACFT TO MEXICO" and called Brownsville tower inbound; the destination was not recorded.