CEN14FA506 · Cessna 172R
Cessna 172R · Accident while maneuvering
From Fort Worth Spinks Airport (FWS) to Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14FA506
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna 172R
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N2435R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Worth Spinks Airport (FWS), Fort Worth, TXTo Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS), Tulsa, OK
- Aircraft age
- About 8 years (built 2006)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
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 pilot obtained weather information about 1 hour 45 minutes before takeoff. The weather information included an AIRMET that indicated that instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions existed at the takeoff and destination locations and along the intended route of flight due to precipitation and mist. No evidence was found indicating that the pilot obtained additional weather information.
Radar data showed the airplane proceeding toward the destination airport until about 22 miles from the destination, at which point the airplane began a series of turns for undetermined reasons before attempting an approach to a different airport. Radar data then showed the airplane enter a climbing turn away from the airport that did not follow any published missed approach procedure. Shortly after performing the turn, the airplane collided with trees and terrain. There is no evidence that the pilot attempted to obtain an IFR clearance or made any distress calls. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot had several medical conditions; however, there is no evidence that a medical condition contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in his failure to maintain clearance with trees and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14FA506
- Event ID
- 20140919X14845
- Case number
- CEN14FA506
- 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: 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: c69f0ddafba7db0ad0b81fa654b6ef0e80e764dc68cca3a267a6c4cd3a697058; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:26:14.807Z.