FTW83FA415 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Baytown Airport (HPY) to Rockwall Municipal Airport (F46)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's fatalities. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FA415
- 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 Possible conflict
- 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
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N5551Y
- Operator
- Larry O. Gray · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Baytown Airport (HPY), Baytown, TXTo Rockwall Municipal Airport (F46), Rockwall, 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 · 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Electrical system › Failure, total
- Electrical system › Undetermined
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND IN A HIGH SPEED DIVE AND TOTALLY DISINTEGRATED. IMPACT CREATED A 7' CRATER AND MATERIAL BLEW OUT FOR 100 YARDS. THE ENGINES WERE RECOVERED AT THE 14 FT LEVEL IN THE CRATER. THE ACFT TOOK OFF AT 2215 FROM BAYTOWN TX. AT 2334 RADAR AND RADIO CONTACT WAS LOST. AT NO TIME DID THE PLT INDICATE THAT HE WAS HAVING ANY DIFFICULTIES. AS RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST THE RETURN WENT INTO COAST MODE FOR 8 SWEEPS OR 38 SECONDS. ONE THING THAT CAN TRIGGER THE COAST MODE IS A RAPID RATE OF DESCENT IN EXCESS OF 500 FT/MINUTE. ON 8/1/83 THE PLT OWNER EXPERIENCED A TOTAL ELECTRICAL FAILURE IN THIS ACFT WHILE ENROUTE FROM CALIFORNIA TO DALLAS, TX. THE BATTERY CABLES WERE FOUND CORRODED AND LOOSE. THESE WERE CLEANED AND TIGHTENED AND NO FURTHER RECORD OF ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE WAS NOTED. AFTER THE ACCIDENT THE TAIL LIGHT BULB WAS SENT TO THE NTSB LAB FOR ANALYSIS AS TO ITS ILLUMINATION AT IMPACT. THERE FINDINGS INDICATE THE BULB WAS NOT ILLUMINATED AT IMPACT. THERE ARE NO PROVISIONS FOR AN EMERGENCY LIGHTING SYSTEM IN THIS ACFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FA415
- Event ID
- 20001214X44521
- Case number
- FTW83FA415
- 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 1983-09-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7140fc80534d27d96e1d7bd61ecc9dd8a1af9fd2ac620b7c1cef14fe275435bf; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:14:23.779Z.