CHI94GA093 · Cessna 401A
U.S. Dept of Health & Human SV Cessna 401A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Devils Lake Regional Airport (DVL) to Minot International Airport (MOT)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination and flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94GA093
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Government
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 401A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 401
- 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
- N4071Q
- Operator
- U.S. Dept of Health & Human SV
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Devils Lake Regional Airport (DVL), DEVIL'S LAKE, NDTo Minot International Airport (MOT)
- 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
- Public Aircraft Narrative disagrees
- 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
- Approach
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PUBLIC USE FLIGHT WAS BEING OPERATED BY THE INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES. IT DEPARTED VFR FROM DEVIL'S LAKE, NORTH DAKOTA, WITH AN INTENDED DESTINATION OF ROLLA, NORTH DAKOTA. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TWO VISUAL APPROACHES AT ROLLA, BUT ENCOUNTERED WHITEOUT CONDITIONS DUE TO A SNOW STORM. HE OBTAINED AN IFR CLEARANCE & DIVERTED TO MINOT. HE FLEW TWO ILS APPROACHES TO RUNWAY 31 AT MINOT & REPORTED A MISSED APPROACH AFTER EACH. RADIO CONTACT WAS LOST AFTER THE SECOND APPROACH. ABOUT AN HOUR LATER, A SNOW PLOW OPERATOR FOUND WRECKAGE ON THE AIRPORT. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE PLANE HAD IMPACTED TO THE RIGHT OF RUNWAY 31 WITH THE GEAR RETRACTED & THE FLAPS EXTENDED 15 DEG. THE 0959 WEATHER WAS IN PART: 600' OBSCURED, VISIBILITY 1/2 MILE VARIABLE IN SNOW, WIND 110 DEG AT 11 KTS. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL ANOMALY WAS FOUND WITH THE AIRPLANE OR ENGINES.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE DURING A MISSED APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE UNFAVORABLE WEATHER AND SNOW COVERED TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94GA093
- Event ID
- 20001206X00723
- Case number
- CHI94GA093
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 0299a130b910b8f9559852587ac68219b56e6d9dd2d3708ee8fd479d8fc7f220; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:14:25.829Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operation. The narrative states "THE PUBLIC USE FLIGHT WAS BEING OPERATED BY THE INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES"; the flight was a public aircraft operation, not Part 91 general aviation.