FTW82FQA13 · Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Taos, NM to Las Vegas, NM
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FQA13
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N29665
- Operator
- Malcolm H. Lesuerur · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Taos, NMTo Las Vegas, NM
- 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 · descent
- 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
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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 › Oxygen system, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment(anoxia/hypoxia)
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Toadlena, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT IN PIPER PA-28RT, N29665, WAS USING A CALL SIGN, N1104X, WHICH WAS THE REGISTRATION NUMBER OF A DESTROYED PA-32. HE WAS CLEARED TO CLIMB TO FL200, BUT AS HE CONTINUED, HIS SPEECH BECAME SLURRED. HE ACKNOWLEDGED AN ARTC INSTRUCTION TO CHECK HIS OXYGEN AND INSTRUMENTS AND TO DESCEND TO 15,000 FT, BUT HE DID NOT COMPLY. AFTER THAT, THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO RADIO CALLS. A C-130 AIRCREW MADE A RENDEZVOUS (AT NIGHT), BUT DETECTED NO OCCUPANTS OR SIGNS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL. N29665 WAS EQUIPPED WITH AN AUTOPILOT (WITH ALTITUDE HOLD), OXYGEN, AND AN AUTO-GEAR LOWERING SYSTEM. AFTER AIRBORNE ABOUT 3 HRS (TIME TO USE 1 FUEL TANK), THE PLANE BEGAN TO DESCEND AND WAS OBSERVED ENTERING A FOG BANK NEAR THE CRASH SITE. IT CRASHED WITH THE GEAR EXTENDED, ELEVATION 6250 FT MSL, FUEL SELECTOR TO THE EMPTY LEFT TANK (RIGHT TANK WAS FULL). THE PILOT WAS FOUND ALIVE, 6 1/2 HRS LATER. THE OXYGEN TANK WAS FOUND EMPTY, VALVE AT "OFF" POSITION, OXYGEN AVAILABLE FOR PILOT USE, BUT THE OXYGEN MASKS WERE STILL PACKAGED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FQA13
- Event ID
- 20020917X02125
- Case number
- FTW82FQA13
- 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 1982-02-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dd671f7cb61c7980b9f71b85f0f1e7f9733cd212c9c2ee182d473feee6e2e3d3; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:19:17.198Z.