DFW06FA021 · Piper PA-34-220T
V & R Enterprises Piper PA-34-220T · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Gillespie County Airport (T82) to DHW · Tomball, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW06FA021
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-34-220T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N4171Z
- Operator
- V & R Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gillespie County Airport (T82), Fredericksburg, TXTo DHW · Tomball, 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 missed 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument rated commercial pilot lost control of the twin-engine airplane while attempting to execute a missed approach following a Localizer (LOC) approach to runway 17R while operating in instrument meteorological conditions that were below the prescribed minimums for the approach. The airplane impacted east of runway 17R near the airport boundary on a heading of 345 degrees. Radar data depicted that the airplane remained right of the approach course throughout the instrument approach, and showed the airplane begin a right turn at about 300 feet MSL, then turn to the left, and initiate a climb. The airplane continued to a heading of 105 degrees, with altitudes between 300 and 800 feet prior to beginning a descent. The airplane was observed to disappear into the clouds by tower personnel and was seen coming out of the clouds by witnesses at a high rate of descent with the left wing in a near vertical attitude. A witness stated that the airplane was at an altitude of 300-400 feet above the ground when it came out of the clouds. A second witness reported that he heard a low flying aircraft, and then observed a twin-engine airplane banking left out of the clouds, then level out, and appear to attempt to climb but was too low. A detailed examination of the wreckage of the airplane and the engines did not reveal any pre-impact mechanical anomalies. A weather observation taken approximately 2 minutes after the accident included a visibility 1 3/4 statue miles with mist, and an overcast ceiling at 300 feet. The approach minumums for LOC 17R requied a 500 foot or better ceiling, and at least one mile visibility.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the aircraft while attempting to execute a missed approach procedure in weather that was below landing minimums. Contributing factors were the low ceiling, and the below approach landing minimums.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW06FA021
- Event ID
- 20051115X01838
- Case number
- DFW06FA021
- 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, coordinates. 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: 0194008fa49c39cd5f4261d79051375ddd41b3ea5d66da5a20384c4b14bd20d3; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:46:16.525Z.