FTW02LA052 · Piper PA-23-250
Safewing Aviation Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Wiley Post Airport (PWA) to Halliburton Field (DUC)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA052
- 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
- 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
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
- N127CA
- Operator
- Safewing Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wiley Post Airport (PWA), Oklahoma City, OKTo Halliburton Field (DUC), Duncan, OK
- 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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 object
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, below
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument rated commercial pilot received a weather briefing for a positioning flight. His weather briefing included an Airmet for IFR conditions, calm winds, visibility of 1/4 mile, fog, low ceilings, and matching temperature and dew points. The flight departed the airport and the pilot received radar vectors to the initial approach fix (IAF), was cleared for the localizer approach, and issued the altimeter setting. The IAF is 5.0 nautical miles from the runway threshold and the minimum decision altitude is 1,600 feet (503 feet agl), with a minimum approach visibility of 1 mile. Subsequently, the controller noted static on his radio frequency and a power fluctuation at the facility. The power company recorded a power fault. Radio contact could not be established with the pilot. The airplane struck power lines (38 feet 6 inches agl) and impacted the terrain short of the runway. Power line cables were found entangled about the fuselage and the horizontal stabilizer. Following the accident, the LOC approach was flight checked satisfactory by the FAA. The REIL's were inoperative. Flight control continuity was confirmed. The cockpit approach receivers, indicators, and communication equipment were checked and no anomalies were noted that would have affected the approach. No anomalies were found with the vacuum pumps, airframe, or engine that would have precluded operation prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's descent below the minimum descent altitude, and his failure to maintain obstacle clearance. Contributing factors were the below approach/landing minimum weather, the dark night conditions, and the inoperative REIL's.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA052
- Event ID
- 20011218X02412
- Case number
- FTW02LA052
- 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 2001-12-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 36e8d0b343c9a207dbac00291d55947dd5f2bb6c8c2106862588c11e4eb556a9; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:43:02.862Z.