FTW83FA060 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF) to San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FA060
- 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
Beech A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N6662Y
- Operator
- Warren J. Hartmann · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, TXTo San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT), San Angelo, 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 · 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND PASSENGERS HAD DEPARTED THE SAN ANGELO AIRPORT AT ABOUT 1800 CST ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT. THEY STOPPED AT MIDLAND, TX WHERE THEY BORROWED A COURTESY CAR AND DROVE TO A RESTAURANT. LATER, THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED ON A RETURN FLIGHT. AT ABOUT 2320 CST, THE PILOT MADE A RADIO CALL (INTENDED TO THE SAN ANGELO TOWER) AND ANNOUNCED THAT HE WAS 17 MILES NORTHWEST FOR LANDING. THE AIRCREW OF RIO AIRLINES FLIGHT 715 HEARD THE TRANSMISSION AND INFORMED THE PILOT THAT THE TOWER WAS CLOSED, BUT THE RUNWAY LIGHTS WERE ON. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH SLIGHTLY RISING TERRAIN IN A NEAR LEVEL FLIGHT ATTITUDE. THE PLANE BOUNCED AND CONTINUED ANOTHER 384 FT BEFORE THE SECOND GROUND IMPACT. THE MAIN WRECKAGE CONTINUED ANOTHER 420 FT BEFORE IT CAME TO REST AND BURNED. THE IMPACT AREA WAS IN SPARSELY POPULATED RANGE LAND WHERE THERE WAS AN ABSENCE OF LIGHTS. NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURES WERE EVIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FA060
- Event ID
- 20020917X04645
- Case number
- FTW83FA060
- 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 1982-12-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e004ae7db040f8b0d15820ee82c130e4cc935261028b7b668cf72d30a1dbdfb7; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:22:38.715Z.