FTW84LA053 · Cessna 310Q
Cessna 310Q · Accident: nose gear collapsed during takeoff
From Tradewind Airport to Amarillo International Airport
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW84LA053
- 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
- 0 · 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 310Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N218JW
- Operator
- Ray Oppel
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tradewind AirportTo Amarillo International Airport
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Nose gear collapsed
- 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 of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS STARTING A FLT TO REPOSITION THE ACFT FROM THE TRADEWIND ARPT TO THE AMARILLO INTL ARPT. HE REPORTED THAT HE HAD STARTED TO TAKEOFF ON RWY 17, THEN ABORTED TO AVOID A CESSNA 182. HE REPORTED THE CESSNA 182 PLT WAS CROSSING RWY 17, ON HIS WAY TO RWY 23. THE PLT OF N218JW STATED THAT WHEN HE RETARDED THE THROTTLE TO ABORT, HE ALSO VEERED TO THE RIGHT. AT THAT TIME, THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR & NOSEWHEEL WENT OFF THE ASPHALT & INTO AN AREA OF GRASS. WHEN HE TRIED TO STEER BACK ONTO THE PAVED SURFACE, THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. AN EXAM OF THE AREA SHOWED THAT THE PAVEMENT IN THAT AREA WAS ABOUT 4 TO 5 INCHES HIGHER THAN THE DIRT WHERE THE GRASS WAS GROWING. THE PLT STATED THAT FROM THE COCKPIT, THE DROP-OFF WAS NOT APPARENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW84LA053
- Event ID
- 20001214X45068
- Case number
- FTW84LA053
- 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: 35b03365a4e7a63ff83f1dce56f456c433ca2406771c3568285e6dda224516cf; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:08:00.323Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure, destination. The narrative states the pilot was starting "A FLT TO REPOSITION THE ACFT FROM THE TRADEWIND ARPT TO THE AMARILLO INTL ARPT" when he aborted the takeoff; the departure was not recorded. The narrative states the pilot was starting "A FLT TO REPOSITION THE ACFT FROM THE TRADEWIND ARPT TO THE AMARILLO INTL ARPT"; the destination was not recorded.