LAX94LA003 · Cessna 182H
Cessna 182H · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT) to Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA003
- 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
- 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 182H
- 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
- N8397S
- Operator
- Cecil Drew
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT), Klamath Falls, ORTo Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT (PIC) REPORTED THAT HE & ANOTHER PILOT (PASSENGER) FLEW TO A FRESH WATER RESERVOIR. HE SAID THAT EN ROUTE, THEY 'TOOK TURNS DOING WING OVERS AND TIGHT TURNS.' HE SAID THEY DECIDED TO MAKE A 360 DEGREE TURN OVER THE WATER, THEN FLY BACK TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. THE PIC INDICATED THAT WHILE TURNING OVER GLASSY WATER, THE WATER, SUN, HAZE & COLOR OF THE BACKGROUND TERRAIN RESULTED IN AN OPTICAL ILLUSION. HE SAID HE LOST REFERENCE TO THE HORIZON, AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE WATER ABOUT HALF WAY THROUGH THE TURN. THE PILOT SURVIVED THE ACCIDENT. HE EGRESSED FROM THE AIRPLANE AS IT WAS SINKING, BUT WAS UNABLE TO RESCUE THE OTHER OCCUPANT. NO MECHANICAL PROBLEM WITH THE AIRPLANE WAS REPORTED.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, WHILE PERFORMING A LOW-ALTITUDE MANEUVER (TURN) OVER WATER. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: SUN GLARE, HAZE, GLASSY CONDITION OF THE WATER, AND THE LACK OF VISUAL CUES (VISUAL PERCEPTION) FOR THE PILOT TO JUDGE ALTITUDE AND KEEP REFERENCE TO THE HORIZON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA003
- Event ID
- 20001211X13586
- Case number
- LAX94LA003
- 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: 5a1bb5f22a6e6574448fc441e55324dfda170905978479f98d4a94d6722f7742; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:22:12.057Z.