FTW82FRA14 · Cessna R172K
Cessna R172K · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From T72 · Hearne, TX to T72 · Hearne, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FRA14
- 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 R172K
- 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
- N758SK
- Operator
- David & Lila Keller
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T72 · Hearne, TXTo T72 · Hearne, 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE THE AIRCRAFT TOOK OFF, FOG WAS NOTED AT THE AIRPORT. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE CEILING WAS ABOUT 100 TO 200 FT AND THE VISIBILITY WAS ABOUT 1/2 MILE. REPORTEDLY, THE PILOT TRIED TO CONTACT THE FSS BY TELEPHONE; HOWEVER, ONLY A PAY TELEPHONE WAS AVAILABLE AT THE AIRPORT. THE PAY PHONE WAS OUT OF ORDER AND COULD ONLY BE USED FOR INCOMING CALLS. ALSO, THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO CONTACT THE FSS BY RADIO WHILE ON THE GROUND. HE THEN STATED HIS INTENTION TO TAKEOFF AND CHECK THE WEATHER WHILE AIRBORNE. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT TAKEOFF AND THEN DISAPPEAR AT ABOUT 200 FT AGL. OTHER WITNESSES STATED THAT THEY HEARD A LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT AND A PROBABLE FLIGHT PATH WAS ESTABLISHED AROUND THE AIRPORT. TWO WITNESSES STATED THAT THEY STOPPED HEARING THE ENGINE BEFORE THEY HEARD THE IMPACT. THE PLANE CRASHED NEAR THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY. THE INVESTIGATION INCLUDED AN ENGINE TEARDOWN, BUT NO PREIMPACT FAILURE WAS FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FRA14
- Event ID
- 20020917X02134
- Case number
- FTW82FRA14
- 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: 0aa7c0253be3548acbec75efc4206a5bd7db1d417d72f1f2fc08bc983989f5f7; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:40:35.899Z.