Probable cause
The pilot’s intentional flight into a silo.
NTSB analysis
The commercial pilot telephoned his wife from his car and told her he was en route to his company's airplane hangar and was going to kill himself. She alerted her husband's employer, who then alerted the police department. The pilot took the airplane without the company's permission and then flew it into a 138-ft-tall silo. The autopsy report cited the manner of death as being "consistent with suicide."
Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN16LA203 for the full record.
Event
- Date
- Jun 2, 2016
- Type
- Accident
- Place
- Penwell, Texas
- Highest injury
- Fatal
- Fatal injuries
- 1
- Weather
- Visual (VMC)
- Light
- Night
Cessna 150
- N-number
- N5679G
- Category
- Airplane
- Year built
- 1969
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Operating rule
- Part 91 (general aviation)
- Purpose of flight
- Personal
From the NTSB aviation accident database: N-registered aircraft, events since 2008, data through Oct 28, 2026. The file is published monthly, so the latest weeks are incomplete and recent records can change. The official source is the NTSB aviation investigation search. CheckAero is independent and not affiliated with the NTSB.