SEA92FA105 · Cessna 182R
Marinex Aviation Cessna 182R · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Missoula Montana Airport (MSO) to Billings Logan International Airport (BIL)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92FA105
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182R
- 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
- N8267E
- Operator
- Marinex Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Missoula Montana Airport (MSO), Missoula, MTTo Billings Logan International Airport (BIL), Billings, MT
- 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
- 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
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
TWO AND A HALF HOURS BEFORE THE FLT, THE PLT OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING FOR A VFR FLT. THE SPECIALIST REPORTED FLT PRECAUTIONS FOR MOUNTAIN OBSCURATION WITH OCCASIONAL MODERATE RIME OR MIXED ICE IN THE CLOUDS. JUST PRIOR TO THE FLT, THE PLT FILED A VFR FLT PLAN AND CHECKED THE WEATHER AGAIN FOR CHANGES. WHEN THE PLT CONTACTED MISSOULA RADIO TO OPEN THE FLT PLAN, THE PLT CHANGED THE VFR FLT PLAN TO AN IFR FLT PLAN. AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT WAS CLEARED TO 11,000 FT. SHORTLY AFTER THE FLT WAS LEVEL AT 11,000 FT, THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE WAS PICKING UP A LOAD OF ICE AND REQUESTED A LOWER ALT. THE PLT WAS CLEARED TO DESCEND AND MAINTAIN 9,500 FT. A SHORT TIME LATER, THE PLT NOTIFIED THE CONTROLLER THAT HE WAS PASSING THROUGH 8,500 FT AND UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALT. WITH THE USE OF ANOTHER AIRPLANE IN THE AREA TO RELAY MESSAGES, THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE WAS IN IMC. NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS WERE AVAILABLE. AN INITIAL SEARCH WAS UNSUCCESSFUL BUT THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND NEARLY 4 MONTHS LATER IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Probable cause
POOR INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: ICING CONDITIONS, DARK NIGHT, FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER AND AN INADEQUATE WEATHER EVALUATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92FA105
- Event ID
- 20001211X14044
- Case number
- SEA92FA105
- 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 1992-01-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0604fc401971b67273bef9f193aff0758754dc2fa40a52ebbc2f952ab412aff6; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:23:37.100Z.