FTW83AA024 · Piper PA-31P
Piper PA-31P and Cessna 337G · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83AA024
- 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
- 4 · 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-31P
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N100FD
- Operator
- Standard Fittings
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Opelousas, LATo C · Dallas, 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 · IFR initial 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
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 337G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N72430
- Operator
- Jack W. Williams · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Addison, TXTo C · Nocona, 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
- En route · climb to 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › VFR procedures, improper
- Pilot of other aircraft › VFR procedures, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PA-31, N100FD, WAS BEING VECTORED BY DFW APPROACH CONTROL (APCH CTL) FOR A LANDING ON RWY 13L AT DALLAS-LOVE FLD. THE PLT'S LAST RECEIVED & ACKNOWLEDGED INSTRUCTIONS WERE TO DESCEND & MAINTAIN 2000' & TURN LEFT TO 190 DEG. SIMULTANEOUSLY,A CESSNA 337, N72430, DEPARTED RWY 15 AT ADDISON ARPT, UNDER TOWER CONTROL, & WAS TO MAKE A RGT CLIMBING TURN OF APPROX 180 DEG. TWO MIN AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT ASKED & GOT APPROVAL FOR FREQ CHNG. 24 SEC LATER, HE CONTACTED APCH CTL STATING HE HAD JUST DEPARTED ADDISON & WAS CLIMBING TO 2500' ON A 300 DEG HDG. THE CONTROLLER MISUNDERSTOOD THE PLT'S DEPARTURE POINT & INSTRUCTED HIM TO CHANGE TO FREQ 120.5. THE 2 ACFT IMMEDIATELY COLLIDED. A 2000' CEILING WAS REPORTED, 2 WITNESSES STATED THEY COULD SEE MORE BLUE SKY THAN CLDS. A WITNESS APRX 8 MI AWAY SAW A FIREBALL IN THE CLDS. INVESTIGA-TION REVEALED THE CONTROLLER, VECTORING N100FD, PREMATURELY CLEARED THE ACFT TO AN ALT WHICH WAS BELOW THE CEILING OF THE ADDISON ARPT TRAFFIC AREA & PRIOR TO REACHING THE AIRSPACE DELEGATED FOR THAT PURPOSE BY AN ATC LETTER OF AGREEMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83AA024
- Event ID
- 20020917X04634
- Case number
- FTW83AA024
- 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: f41b5551b7fb093ef28837139c565cc8f2d3619bc6bec3a7faf2ce5ad1dbc4f4; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:36:28.749Z.