Kitty Hawk Airways Cessna 402B accident
Cessna 402B and Lee Kirk Piper PA-28 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82DA275
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N87280
- Operator
- Kitty Hawk Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Antonio, TXTo Austin, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-28
- 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
- N5224W
- Operator
- Lee Kirk
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Marcos, TXTo Austin, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BOTH ACFT WERE APPROACHING FROM THE SSW & FLYING ASSIGNED HEADINGS. NEITHER ACFT HAD BEEN ASSIGNED AN ALTITUDE. JUST PRIOR TO IMPACT, APPROACH CONTROL (A/C) TOLD THE C-402B TO FLY 360 TO FOLLOW TRAFFIC & ASKED WHAT HIS ALTITUDE WAS. WHENTHE PLT RESPONDED HE WAS AT 2300 FT, A/C TOLD HIM "YOU'VE GOT A CHEROKEE RIGHT THERE WITH YOU." THE COLLISION OCCURRED ABOUT 5 SECS LATER. THE PA-28 MADE A FORCED LANDING IN A RETENTION POND. THE C-402B LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. OF THE 8 ATC PERSONNEL ON DUTY IN THE TRACON, ONLY 3 WERE ASSIGNED CONTROL POSITIONS. THE REMAINDER WERE EITHER ON BREAKOR OUT FOR DINNER. THE ACCIDENT CONTROLLER HAD 9 ACFT UNDER HIS CONTROL AT THE TIME. BOTH ACFT WERE WITHIN HIS CONTROL &HAD BEEN ASSIGNED TRANSPONDER CODES, RADAR IDENTIFIED & ASSIGNED HEADINGS FOR SEQUENCING. THE ONLY TRAFFIC ADVISORY HE ISSUED EITHER ACFT ABOUT THE OTHER WAS WHEN THE COLLISION WAS IMMINENT & HE TOLD THE C-402B THAT THE CHEROKEE WAS RIGHT THERE WITH HIM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82DA275
- Event ID
- 20020917X03351
- Case number
- FTW82DA275
- 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 1982-07-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 78063f5c793f3510a612be9f39f490d5755da7047fb8fede5e36153aa29c3721; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:08:18.651Z.