- Date
- March 18, 1982, 00:00 local (06:00 UTC)
- Place
- Kingsville, TX
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N8988PPiper PA-24-260
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report March 18, 1983
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19820318019149A
- Case key
- 71275
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
On 3/17/82 a wx briefer advised the pilot all of Texas would be under instrument meteorological conditons on the morningof 3/18/82. There was no record of a flt plan filed by the pilot of N8988P and the departure time from Kingsville could not be determined. The aircraft wreckage was found the next morning 1.5 miles southeast of the airport in a plowedfield. Examination of the vacuum driven attitude gyro after the accident revealed evidence of preimpact malfunction. Testing revealed that the gyro would not erect properly due to dirty spindle bearings. No other preimpact malfunctions or failures were found. The pilot of N8988P logged a total of 2.6 hours of instrument flt in the six months previous to the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8988P
- Reported as
- Piper PA-24-260
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 24-4448
- Airframe hours
- 1,486
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-D4A5, 310 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Jas L. Bissett
- Registered owner
- Jas L. Bissett
- Departed
- TKB · Kingsville, TX
- Destination
- Corpus Christi, TX
- Airport
- TKB · Kleberg County, runway 13, 6,000 × 0 ft
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 33
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 1,887 total · 238 in this make and model · 1,437 as pilot in command · 67 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Observed at
- SAT
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.