FTW87FA029
1986-12-06 · PETERSBURG, Texas, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport LBB
Aircraft involved
Factual narrative
ACFT IMPACTED IN A 95 DEG NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE FOLLOWING A LOSS OF CONTROL IN IMC CONDITIONS WHILE THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PVT PLT WAS BEING VECTORED TO THE FINAL APP CRS. PLT HAD FILED IFR AND HAD EXPERIENCED DIFFICULTIES THRU OUT THE FLT. AS HE WAS GIVEN VECTORS FOR SEQUENCING HIS FLYING BECAME ERRATIC AND HE COMPLAINED OF PITOT ICE AND INSTRUMENT PROBLEMS. ICING LVL WAS WELL ABOVE HIS ALT AND POST-ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT ALL INSTRUMENTS WERE WORKING NORMALLY. HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEMS WAS INCONSISTENT WITH THE WAY THE 2 SEPARATE INSTRUMENT SYSTEMS OPERATE. THE PLT HAD RECENTLY FAILED HIS INSTRUMENT WRITTEN AND HAD A TOTAL OF 39 HRS SIMULATED INSTRUMENT TIME. EVIDENCE ALSO REVEALED HE WAS OPERATING THE ACFT WITH AN INOP ADF AND DEFICIENT VHF NAV RADIOS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1986_FTW87FA029.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
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