DFW08CA069 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) on approach
From Biggin Hill Airpark (TA67) to Shallowater, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW08CA069
- 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
Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N26868
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Biggin Hill Airpark (TA67), Shallowater, TXTo Shallowater, 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 base
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While maneuvering to final approach for a landing the pilot allowed the left wing of the airplane to contact the ground and subsequently collided with terrain. The airplane was substantially damaged. The pilot was wearing a shoulder restraint and lap belt and was not injured. The pilot reported that the collision was due to pilot error by allowing the airplane to get too low while maneuvering to land. Additionally the pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions prior to the accident.
Probable cause
Failure of the pilot to maintain a safe clearance from the terrain while manuevering for the landing surface.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW08CA069
- Event ID
- 20080227X00239
- Case number
- DFW08CA069
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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 2008-02-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 598989b81c6541b8227409f7a76a1e28a3ca270b53b2b9dafca8d42a80b2108e; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:23:27.749Z.