FTW82FPJ14 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Lawton, OK to Lawton, OK
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FPJ14
- 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
- 1 · 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 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N5608J
- Operator
- Jas Wurman
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lawton, OKTo Lawton, 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
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hulen, OK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED LAWTON, OKLAHOMA AT 0902 LOCAL TIME ON A FLIGHT TO INSPECT MINERAL PROPERTY. AT ABOUT 0931, THE PILOT CONTACTED FT. SILL APPROACH CONTROL AND REQUESTED VECTORS TO LAWTON. HE WAS INSTRUCTED TO FLY A HEADING OF 320 DEGREES. AFTER FLYING THAT HEADING FOR ABOUT SIX MILES. THE PILOT ASKED FOR AND WAS GIVEN THE FT. SILL WEATHER. SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A RIGHT TURN TO A SOUTHERLY HEADING. WHEN QUERIED, THE PILOT REPLIED HE WAS IN VFR CONDITIONS AND TURNED INTENTIONALLY. EARLIER, THE RADAR CONTROLLER HAD RECEIVED REPORTS OF A SCUD LAYER SOUTHEAST OF LAWTON AND ASSUMED THE PILOT WAS VFR ON TOP. THE CONTROLLER PROVIDED A HEADING OF 260 DEGREES AND ADVISED THIS SHOULD TAKE HIM INTO A CLEAR AREA. AT 0941, THE AIRCRAFT RETURN DISAPPEARED FROM THE RADAR SCOPE. THE PLANE CRASHED SOUTHEAST OF LAWTON IN A WHEAT FIELD ON LEVEL TERRAIN. IT TRAVELED ABOUT 300 FT AFTER IMPACT. AN OBSERVER ON A RESCUE HELICOPTER REPORTED A CEILING OF 100 TO 300 FT AND VISIBILITY OF 1/4 TO 1/2 MILE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FPJ14
- Event ID
- 20020917X02122
- Case number
- FTW82FPJ14
- 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: 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: 28a5e425dc035410d7b6b888d3946c0d2aa333432cd7a6d5754f4f2a0a041283; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:34:42.216Z.