DFW07CA038 · Cessna 421
Cessna 421 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (KFTW) to CRC Aviation Heliport (2TX3)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07CA038
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 421
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N642CB
- Operator
- Thomas Westberry
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (KFTW), Forth Worth, TXTo CRC Aviation Heliport (2TX3), Brackettville, 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 7,660-hour airline transport rated pilot lost control of the twin-engine airplane while attempting to abort the landing. Dark night conditions prevailed for the attempted landing on runway 18. Runway 18 was reported to be 5,280-feet long, by 50 feet wide. The asphalt runway was reported to be dry and in good condition at the time of the accident. The pilot stated in the accident report (NTSB form 6120.1/2) that "I saw the one row of lights on short final and my mind played a trick on me. I had the thought that I was off-course and that those lights were houses." The pilot delayed making the decision to execute a go-around and by the time he added power the airplane had touched down in the "turnaround" area to the right of the approach end of runway 18. During the inadvertent touchdown the airplane rolled to the left and the left propeller struck the ground, resulting in damage to the left engine. The pilot added that he elected to retard the right engine to avoid losing control of the airplane and the airplane impacted the ground to the left of the runway. The airplane came to rest in an area of small bushes and mesquite trees. The pilot was able to egress the airplane unassisted through the main cabin door, and was not injured. A post-impact fire developed and consumed the airplane. The pilot reported that he was familiar with the airport and had operated several airplanes in and out of that location. Weather reported at Del Rio International Airport, located approximately 11 miles north of the accident site, was clear skies, 3 miles visibility, with winds from 150 degrees at 5 knots, temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and an altimeter setting of 29.95 inches of Mercury. The pilot added that he was not aware that the first 5 or 6 runway lights on the left side of the runway (at the approach end) were out of service when he initiated the night landing approach.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain proper runway alignment on final approach and his delayed decision to execute a go-around. Factors were the dark night conditions and the inoperative runway edge lights.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07CA038
- Event ID
- 20070117X00063
- Case number
- DFW07CA038
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2006-12-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d24eab97a2d4f1e3bc2e2ad1abaceac22db828a0453ae56071fd4b653831a2c1; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:08:04.255Z.