ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 39790
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| Date: | Friday 14 December 1984 |
| Time: | 18:57 |
| Type: |  Piper PA-30-160 Twin Comanche |
| Owner/operator: | Boogie Bears Design & Display |
| Registration: | N7329Y |
| MSN: | 30-375 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 32877 hours |
| Engine model: | LYCOMING IO-320-BIA |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Interstate I-40, 10 miles W of Albuquerque, New Mexico -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Executive |
| Departure airport: | Fort Worth Meacham Airport, Fort Worth, Texas (FWS/KFWS) |
| Santa Fe Municipal Airport, Santa Fe, New Mexico (SAF/KSAF) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Written off (destroyed) December 14, 1984 when crashed on approach to Albuquerque Airport, New Mexico. All three on board were killed. According to contemporary press reports (see link #4):
"In Albuquerque, medical investigators still were trying Monday to get positive identification of three people killed when a twin-engine airplane crashed west of Albury Road, said papers found at the crash site listed the name of a Fort Worth, Texas, man. Bob Turner, supervisor at the Albuquerque Air Control Center, said the plane was coming in from the south when it suddenly disappeared from radar screens. He said the airplane was last seen on the radar at about 2,000 feet elevation.
Officials at the Albuquerque control tower said the airplane approached the city late Friday from the east and disappeared from radar while preparing to make an approach for a landing. Roy Patterson, an employee at a service station several miles from the crash site, said he heard an airplane Friday evening and what "sounded like an explosion". State police came by and asked me if I heard anything, and I said "Sure, and then they started hunting with spotlights" he said.
The three, two men and a woman, died in the crash Friday, when a major winter storm swept across New Mexico. A spokesman at the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque said Sunday the condition of the bodies had hampered efforts to identify the' three victims. However, officials said papers found at the crash scene indicated the three people aboard the Comanche aircraft were from the Fort Worth, Texas, area. State Police said late Monday that some records needed for the identification process still had not been received by medical investigators and positive identifications probably would not be made until today. The wreckage of the airplane was found early Saturday about 10 miles west of Albuquerque and two miles south of Interstate 40, state police reported. The official NTSB report into the accident states:
THE FLIGHT WAS EN ROUTE FROM FORTH WORTH, TEXAS, TO SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, WHEN THE PILOT DECIDED TO DIVERT TO ALBUQUERQUE. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED WHILE BEING VECTORED FOR AN ILS APPROACH TO RUNWAY 8 AT ALBUQUERQUE. ALL THREE PERSONS ON BOARD [PILOT AND TWO PASSENGERS] WERE KILLED
THE PILOT HAD RECEIVED HIS INSTRUMENT RATING SLIGHTLY MORE THAN 6 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. HE HAD LOGGED 24.1 HRS OF ACTUAL INSTRUMENTS BUT HAD MADE ONLY ONE INSTRUMENT APPROACH SINCE RECEIVING HIS INSTRUMENT RATING. THE PILOT HAD BEEN FLYING MORE THAN 3 HOURS ON INSTRUMENTS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
SPATIAL DISORIENTATION...PILOT IN COMMAND
Contributing Factors:
TERRAIN CONDITION...GROUND
VFR FLIGHT INTO IMC...CONTINUED...PILOT IN COMMAND
WEATHER CONDITIONS...HIGH WIND...LOW CEILING...OBSCURATION...SNOW...WINDSHEAR
LACK OF RECENT INSTRUMENT TIME...PILOT IN COMMAND
FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER..INITIATED..PILOT IN COMMAND
Registration N7329Y cancelled by the FAA on September 10, 1986
Anecdotal evidence suggests the wind shear had been reported by a heavy aircraft just immediately prior to N7329Y's disappearance from radar. The wind shear had not been relayed to the now deceased pilot prior to their crash.
Sources:
1. NTSB Identification: DEN85FA043 at https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20001214X41755&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=FA
2. FAA: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=7329Y
3. http://planecrashmap.com/plane/nm/N7329Y/
4. Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 18, 1984, Page 16 at https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/158448338/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Oct-2008 10:30 | ASN archive | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:23 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 03-Apr-2017 15:58 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 03-Apr-2017 16:14 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 03-Apr-2017 16:16 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 23-Feb-2018 17:42 | Anon. | Updated [Departure airport] |
| 15-Dec-2021 09:24 | Robert Brannon | Updated [Narrative] |
| 15-Dec-2021 09:25 | harro | Updated [Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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