FTW01FA065 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to Perry Lefors Field (PPA)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW01FA065
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 17-30A
- 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
- N1256R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, NMTo Perry Lefors Field (PPA), Pampa, 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
- 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
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to air traffic control, 20 miles prior to the intended destination, the pilot terminated VFR flight following for the night cross-country flight. About 4 hours later, the destination airport manager was notified of an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) transmitting in the vicinity. A check of the airport did not locate the ELT. A continuing search for the ELT resulted in finding of the accident airplane approximately 1.8 miles east of the airport. Examination of the accident site revealed that the airplane impacted the ground and traveled 505 feet before coming to rest. The engine separated from the fuselage and traveled for 693 feet before coming to rest. There were no reported eyewitnesses to the accident; however, fog was reported in the area at the time of the accident. The non-instrument rated private pilot received a preflight briefing about 12 hours before the flight. No structural or mechanical anomalies were observed during the post accident examination of the airplane. The last logged night flight was on January 14, 2001, and the last logged simulated instrument conditions flight was on November 7, 1999. The FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute toxicology report noted 7.65 (mg/dl, mg/hg) acetaminophen was detected in urine. Chlorpheniramine was detect in blood and urine. According to the FAA Southwest Regional Flight Surgeon, chlorpheniramine is found in allergy and cold preparations. It is sometimes combined with acetaminophen (Tylenol). It may cause significant drowsiness, therefore, it is not recommended for use while performing safety-sensitive activities.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain terrain clearance. Contributing factors were the dark night and the fog.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW01FA065
- Event ID
- 20010215X00456
- Case number
- FTW01FA065
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-02-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 140f16a818c6416785c1fceeb6d6ace42fb70244cc0a651bcb47d5bb1b00166b; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:39:54.826Z.