CHI94LA130 · Cessna 182P
Cessna 182P · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From OK5 · Jerseyville, IL to Spirit of St Louis Airport (SUS)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA130
- 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 182P
- 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
- N9187M
- Operator
- Jerseyville Sport Flyers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From OK5 · Jerseyville, ILTo Spirit of St Louis Airport (SUS)
- 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
- Approach · IFR final 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 collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE FLIGHT, THE PILOT WAS TOLD THE ILS GLIDESLOPE FOR RUNWAY 8R AT THE DESTINATION (SUS) WAS OUT OF SERVICE. DURING A NIGHT ARRIVAL, THE APPROACH CONTROLLER (APCH CTLR) ASKED IF HE WANTED AN IFR CLEARANCE; HE SAID HE DID. THE CTLR PROVIDED VECTORS FOR AN ILS 8 RIGHT APCH, BUT CLEARED THE PILOT FOR THE APCH WITHOUT ADVISING THAT THE GLIDESLOPE WAS OUT OF SERVICE. ALSO, THE CTLR DID NOT ASSIGN AN IFR CODE, SO THE LOW ALTITUDE ALERT SYSTEM WAS NOT ACTIVATED. THE PILOT FLEW THRU THE LOCALIZER (LOC) COURSE, THEN SAID HE WAS NOT RECEIVING THE LOC. THE APCH CTLR ASKED THE TOWER IF THE LOC WAS OPERATIONAL & WAS TOLD 'IT WAS IN ALARM BUT THE LOCALIZER IS UP NOW.' THE PILOT WAS REVECTORED FOR THE APCH, THEN SAID HE WAS RECEIVING THE LOC. HE WAS CLEARED AGAIN FOR THE ILS. DURING THE APCH, N9187M DESCENDED BELOW THE LOC-ONLY MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (1020') & ILS DECISION HEIGHT (662'). SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE HIT TREES ON AN ISLAND IN A RIVER, 2.5 MI WEST OF THE AIRPORT. THE RIVER WAS BELOW THE AIRPORT ELEVATION OF 463'.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW PROPER IFR PROCEDURES AND MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE DURING THE APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, THE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND FAILURE OF THE APPROACH CONTROLLER TO ISSUE AN IFR TRANSPONDER CODE TO THE AIRCRAFT WHEN HE PROVIDED THE IFR CLEARANCE, WHICH WOULD HAVE ALLOWED A LOW ALTITUDE ALERT TO BE TRIGGERED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA130
- Event ID
- 20001206X01074
- Case number
- CHI94LA130
- 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: 8c3aeb27d38ad7e2e86b426cf3a48caa7fc83f52df705e5e566e124de91c1ccc; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:00:42.395Z.