FTW82FQG19 · Piper PA-25
Piper PA-25 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Plainview, TX to Plainview, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FQG19
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-25
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-25
- 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
- N4979Y
- Operator
- Joe Ramsey
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Plainview, TXTo Plainview, 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 · aerial application
- 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
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Edmonson, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD BEEN SPRAYING THE FIELD FOR ABOUT 1 HR AND WAS ON THE LAST PASS. THE OWNER/FLAGGER STATED THAT HE HAD WARNED THE PILOT (BY USING A TWO WAY RADIO) TO WATCH OUT FOR A STANDPIPE AND RADIO ANTENNA, AND THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED. HE REPORTED THE PLANE WAS ON ITS LAST PASS AND APPEARED TO BE HIGH ENOUGH TO CLEAR THE ANTENNA. IN THE VICINITY OF THE ANTENNA, HE OBSERVED THE PLANE PULL UP STEEPLY, ROLL TO THE RIGHT, THEN GO DOWN AND IMPACT THE GROUND. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PLANE CRASHED ABOUT 125 FT BEYOND A FIBERGLASS WHIP ANTENNA. THE ANTENNA WAS ABOUT 1 INCH IN DIAMETER AT ITS BASE AND TAPERED TO VERY THIN AT THE TOP, ABOUT 75 TO 85 FT AGL. ABOUT 12 FT HAD SEPARATED FROM THE TOP OF THE ANTENNA. AFTER IMPACTING THE GROUND, THE PLANE BURNED AND WAS DEMOLISHED. NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURES WERE FOUND. THE PILOT DIED ABOUT 10 MIN AFTER BEING REMOVED FROM THE BURNING PLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FQG19
- Event ID
- 20020917X03482
- Case number
- FTW82FQG19
- 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: c5f69eeb927bd1c461cc643e1847963e85ae240fe309762b10d8a875d21d4861; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:06:45.284Z.