Heartland Aviation Cessna 310R accident
Cessna 310R and Cessna 185B · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI98FA356
- 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
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 310R
- 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
- N5056J
- Operator
- Heartland Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chippewa Valley Regional Airport (EAU), Eau Claire, WITo not recorded
- 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Midair collision
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 185B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 185
- 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
- N100TS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From RLA · WISSOTA, WITo not recorded
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual separation, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual separation, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported seeing the twin-engine airplane (Cessna 310) climbing on a north-northeast heading. The airplane was operating on an IFR flight plan. The pilot of that airplane contacted air traffic control as it climbed through 2,500 feet above mean sea level. The controller said he had acknowledged the pilot's transmission and then heard an ELT signal. A witness reported seeing a single engine airplane (Cessna 185) flying in a westerly direction. He said the airplanes collided and were '...engulfed in flames...' as they descended toward the ground. Both airplanes impacted the ground at a 90 degree angle about 3/8 mile apart. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the Cessna 185 left wing tip section had collided with Cessna 310 left wing tip fuel tank. The Cessna 185 left wing tip section crushing matched the shape of the wing tip fuel tank.
Probable cause
the pilots of both airplanes not maintaining visual separation from the other airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI98FA356
- Event ID
- 20001211X10789
- Case number
- CHI98FA356
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1998-09-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6be8b1e0fe4fdb3bdb041fdcfdc25efad991903fa5ed2714b47ea8e404f03139; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:21:38.257Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N5056J; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, AZNA.