FTW82FQD11 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From ALMAGARDO, NM to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FQD11
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-140
- 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
- N1884J
- Operator
- J L Thompson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ALMAGARDO, NMTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Airspeed, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mescalero, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
TWO WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT FLYING EASTBOUND AT LOW ALTITUDE ALONG A HIGHWAY, THEN BEGIN A CLIMBING TURN OVER SHARPLY RISING TERRAIN. AFTER COMPLETING ABOUT 90 DEGREES OF TURN, THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK THE TOPS OF TREES ABOUT 30 FT AGL. ABOUT 12 PACES BEYOND THE INITIAL IMPACT POINT, THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A SECOND GROUP OF TREES. THE SECOND IMPACT OCCURRED ABOUT 6 TO 8 FT ABOVE THE FIRST. ABOUT HALF OF THE RIGHT OUTBOARD WING WAS SEVERED AND REMAINED IN THE SECOND GROUP OF TREES. FROM THERE, THE PLANE DESCENDED THROUGH OTHER TREES AND CAME TO REST ABOUT 20 PACES BEYOND THE SECOND IMPACT POINT. PROPELLER SLASH MARKS WERE FOUND IN THE TREES. A CHECK OF THE FUEL SYSTEM AND A PARTIAL TEARDOWN OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO PREIMPACT FAILURES. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE AT THE CRASH SITE WAS ABOUT 8800 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FQD11
- Event ID
- 20020917X03479
- Case number
- FTW82FQD11
- 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: 6df76e0212438ba43bd7174cc98e1ffab7a5d7aebbafe3f7e7d2a08c64400319; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:27:12.762Z.