- Date
- October 9, 1983, 00:00 local (05:00 UTC)
- Place
- Gulf Of Mexico
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Unknown
- Aircraft
- N4437TPiper PA-34-200
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19831009056809A
- Case key
- 21486
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
The acft disappeared on a flt over a part of the Gulf Of Mexico south of corpus christi in an area of thunderstorm activity. The storms were densely packed and it was considered unlikely that VFR flt could be conducted in the area. Theaccident acft was in radio contact with a former instructor and brother-in-law who was flying to corpus christi in a C-172. The C-172 landed at corpus due to the t-storms and had lost contact with N4437T before landing. A part of a wing identified as having come from N4437T was picked up by a shrimp boat about 3 weeks after the acft was missing. The search by the cap and coast guard found nothing and the search was ended.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4437T
- Reported as
- Piper PA-34-200
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 34-7250095
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360, 200 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- Unknown
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Jimmy Lee Edwards
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- HRL · Harlingen, TX
- Destination
- AAP · Houston, TX
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
- 30
- Certificate
- Student
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 20° at 17 knots
- Visibility
- 5 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 600 ft broken
- Temperature
- 70 °F, dew point 66 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- CRP
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.