DEN99LA032 · Cessna 182M
Cessna 182M · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Raton, NM (no airport) to 2V2 · CO
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN99LA032
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N555NP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Raton, NM (no airport)To 2V2 · CO
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Buzzing, intentional
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot said he made arrangements with a friend to observe the airplane in slow flight. At an altitude of 500 feet agl (above ground level), the pilot reduced power, added flaps, and approached his residence. The light east-northeast wind increased in velocity as he turned, causing the airplane to 'sink' and turn left. The pilot 'attempted to [turn] with no effect.' He said the airplane was equipped with a Wren STOL conversion, which made the controls 'very hard and slow. As [the airplane] was configured, it is very difficult whenever the wind is not on the nose.' The pilot said he had lost considerable altitude and could not maneuver because of his proximity to houses and other structures. He intentionally 'put [the airplane] on the ground.' A witness observed the airplane twice descend 'at a rapid rate of speed,' then make 'a steep ascent back into the air.' The airplane banked 'at a 65 degree angle' and seemed to 'pivot.' The witness 'did not see, at any time, the plane's wings dip as if it were fighting winds.' The pilot told a sheriff's deputy that 'a crosswind pushed him to the ground.'
Probable cause
The pilot's poor judgment by intentionally buzzing. A factor was an unfavorable wind that caused inadequate altitude/clearance to maneuver and avoid nearby houses.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN99LA032
- Event ID
- 20001204X00048
- Case number
- DEN99LA032
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9c1623a59f24f0813df8bec050bd6ec1f65f953c4580d2a05e046994395b0da1; retrieved 2026-09-22T16:00:19.819Z.