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CHI93IA167 · Cessna 550

10 May 1993 · West Chicago, IL, United States

Meisner Aircraft Cessna 550 · Incident: near collision between aircraft during initial climb

From Dupage Airport (DPA) to Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
CHI93IA167
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
Incident
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 550 Possible conflict

Aircraft type
Cessna 550
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
N41SM
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Dupage Airport (DPA)To Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NC
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
Initial climb
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
Near collision between aircraft
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
None

Cause areas

  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Atc clearance, improper
  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Control tower service, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE LOCAL CONTROLLER CLEARED A PIPER PA-28, N9291W, FOR TOUCH-AND-GO ON RUNWAY 15, AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER, CLEARED A CESSNA 500 CORPORATE JET FOR TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 10. THE TWO RUNWAYS WERE SITUATED SO THAT THE EXTENDED CENTERLINE OF RUNWAY 10 CROSSED THE END OF RUNWAY 15. WITNESSES INDICATED THAT THE TWO AIRPLANES PASSED WITHIN 100 TO 300 FEET OF EACH OTHER. THE PILOT OF THE CESSNA REPORTED HE VISUALLY ACQUIRED THE PIPER AS BOTH AIRPLANES WERE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE TAKEOFF ROLLS. THE LOCAL CONTROLLER WAS COMMUNICATING WITH THREE AIRPLANES AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. HE REPORTED HE BECAME DISTRACTED BY INBOUND TRAFFIC AND NEGLECTED TO ADEQUATELY MONITOR THE DEPARTING TRAFFIC. HE SAID HE SHOULD HAVE ISSUED A FULL STOP LANDING CLEARANCE TO THE PIPER INSTEAD OF THE TOUCH-AND-GO CLEARANCE.

Probable cause

INADEQUATE CONTROL TOWER SERVICE BY THE LOCAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER BY PROVIDING CONFLICTING CLEARANCES TO THE PILOTS OF TWO AIRCRAFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI93IA167
Event ID
20001211X12343
Case number
CHI93IA167
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, damage. 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: cb9226029de7e4701142f4ad73d9dc5e05b57a815a9f6ef9390691d0a677b188; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:07:06.663Z.