Copper State Air Service Flight 162
Cessna 310H · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Elko Regional Airport (EKO) to Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA355
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 310H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N1081Q
- Operator
- Copper State Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elko Regional Airport (EKO), Elko, NVTo Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · VFR go-around
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COURIER PILOT WAS INBOUND FOR RUNWAY 25 AT RENO, NEVADA. HE WAS NUMBER TWO FOR LANDING AND HIS TRAFFIC WAS A BOEING 727 INBOUND FOR RUNWAY 16L. HE WAS REQUESTED TO SLOW FOR SPACING AND HAD THE TRAFFIC IN SIGHT. THE CONTROLLER SUGGESTED A TURN FOR SPACING AND THE PILOT SAID THAT HE HAD ALREADY 'SLOWED QUITE A BIT.' THE CONTROLLER AGAIN REQUESTED THE PILOT TO REDUCE TO SLOWEST PRACTICAL AIRSPEED. THE PILOT STATED 'OK WE'RE SLOWING IT DOWN NOW.' AFTERWARDS, THE PILOT WAS TOLD TO GO-AROUND AND HE ACKNOWLEDGED. HE WAS THEN GIVEN A RIGHT TURN AND CLEARED TO LAND ON RUNWAY 25. DURING THE RIGHT MANEUVERING TURN OVER THE CENTER OF THE AIRPORT, THE CONTROLLER ASKED THE PILOT IF HE HAD A PROBLEM TO WHICH THE PILOT ANSWERED 'YES I DO.' ABOUT 5 SECONDS LATER, THE PILOT STATED THAT 'I'M GOING TO CRASH.' WITNESSES STATED THAT THE GO-AROUND APPEARED TO BE AT A SLOW AIRSPEED WITH THE AIRPLANE WALLOWING BACK AND FORTH. AS THE AIRCRAFT PASSED OVER AN AIRLINE TERMINAL CONCOURSE THE LANDING GEAR REPORTEDLY STARTED TO RETRACT. AT THE SAME TIME THE AIRCRAFT ROLLED TO THE LEFT FROM ABOUT 150 FEET AND IMPACTED ON THE JETWAY RAMP NEXT TO THE TERMINAL. THE PILOT DID NOT STATE WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS, NOR WAS THERE ANY PHYSICAL EVIDENCE FOUND DURING THE EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME, ENGINES, AND PROPELLERS.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain minimum control airspeed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA355
- Event ID
- 20001206X02272
- Case number
- LAX94FA355
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-09-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ae20770a4e93762f9c8e730350cfcb6c6ad9e26324f9132293187a43e72bb24d; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:47:29.586Z.