CHI96FA094 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal (BMI) to Chicago Executive Airport (PWK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI96FA094
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182
- 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
- N3243Y
- Operator
- Jerry A. Collins · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal (BMI), Bloomington, ILTo Chicago Executive Airport (PWK), Wheeling, IL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a preflight weather briefing for a cross-country flight at night, the noninstrument-rated pilot was advised by the briefer that 'VFR flight not recommended,' but the pilot elected to proceed on the flight. There was evidence that during the flight, he encountered instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Low visibility and snow showers were reported in the vicinity of the accident site. Subsequently, the airplane crashed. Crush areas on the fuselage indicated the airplane was in about a 30 degree left bank, nose low attitude, during impact. The main wreckage came to rest about 150 yards from the initial impact point. There were no known witnesses to the accident; the wreckage was discovered the next morning by a local resident. No preimpact mechanical malfunction of the aircraft or engine was found during examination of the wreckage. During a pathological examination, the medical examiner noted that 'an area of the (pilot's) heart was hyperemic, grossly, and showed ischemic change with coagulation necrosis by microscopic study.' However, there was no verification that the pilot had experienced a heart attack.
Probable cause
VFR flight by the pilot into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and subsequent loss of aircraft control, probably due to spatial disorientation of the pilot. Factors relating to the accident were: darkness, reduced visibility due to the weather condition (snow), and the pilot's lack of instrument experience.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI96FA094
- Event ID
- 20001208X05225
- Case number
- CHI96FA094
- 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 1996-02-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 40deac53c3724e009c7ed222a417fb863c126a8ba3ab202885ea04b30c181afe; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:25:37.052Z.