FTW82FA223 · Piper PA-32R-301
Monco Piper PA-32R-301 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (TYR) to Tulsa International Airport (TUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FA223
- 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
- 3 · 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-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8442T
- Operator
- Monco
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (TYR), Tyler, TXTo Tulsa International Airport (TUL), Tulsa, 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT, THE PILOT WAS ADVISED BY RADIO OF A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AND TORNADO WATCH ALONG HIS ROUTE. AT 1613 CDT, HE WAS ADVISED OF A LINE OF RADAR RETURNS ABOUT 10 MILES AHEAD. HE REPLIED THAT IT "LOOKS LIKE A SOFT SPOT THROUGH THERE, JUST TO THE NORTH OF OUR POSITION" AND CONTINUED. AT ABOUT 1621 CDT, THE PILOT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. HE REPORTED THAT HE HAD LOST THE ENGINE (ENGINE QUIT) AND AN AILERON, AND THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS DOWN TO 5000 FT. (THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN AT 10,500 FT.) ABOUT 25 SECONDS LATER, HE STATED THAT THE PLANE WAS HARD TO CONTROL, HE WAS AT 2500 FT AND DESCENDING AND HE HAD LOST HIS RIGHT WING. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE INDICATED THE PLANE HAD IMPACTED IN A FLAT SPIN. THE EMPENNAGE, RIGHT AILERON AND A PORTION OF THE OUTER WING PANEL (FORWARD OF THE MAIN SPAR) HAD SEPARATED AND WERE NOT FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FA223
- Event ID
- 20020917X03446
- Case number
- FTW82FA223
- 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: 101e5d69b2138d53329262a12beffcbc6dbb484340286a0bf1375ed81fc0ae11; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:14:09.702Z.