ATL92LA067 · Cessna 182
Vikings of Denmark Cessna 182 · Accident: in flight collision with object
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92LA067
- 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
- 1
- 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 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
- N5441B
- Operator
- Vikings of Denmark
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Other
- 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 object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD TAKEN A NEWLYWED COUPLE UP ON A CEREMONIAL 'MILE HIGH' LOCAL PLEASURE FLIGHT AS A WEDDING GIFT. HE REPORTED THAT DURING A MANEUVER HE FELT A 'SHUDDER', AND ELECTED TO MAKE A LOW PASS OVER AN AIRPORT TAXIWAY, BY SOME FRIENDS ON THE GROUND WITH A HAND-HELD RADIO, FOR A 'LANDING GEAR CHECK'. DURING THE SECOND PASS THE PILOT ASKED THE COUPLE TO 'LOOK TO THE RIGHT WHERE THE MOON SHINES OVER BARNWELL.' THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A SPECTATOR ON THE TAXIWAY. A PAX STATED THAT THE PILOT THEN 'FREAKED OUT' AND WAS IN NO CONDITION TO FLY THE AIRPLANE. DURING A SUBSEQUENT LANDING ATTEMPT, A PAX PREVENTED A GO-AROUND BY FORCING THE YOKE FORWARD AND PUSHING ON THE BRAKE PEDALS WITH HIS HANDS. THE PAX STATED THE PILOT 'WANTED TO KEEP FLYING AND HE WAS GOING NUTS.' THE PILOT FLED THE SCENE AFTER THE ACCIDENT BUT RETURNED LATER. THE PILOT HAD ARRANGED TO HAVE THE PEOPLE ON THE GROUND 'MOON' THE AIRPLANE DURING THE LOW PASS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A SAFE ALTITUDE ABOVE THE GROUND WHILE MAKING A LOW PASS AT NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92LA067
- Event ID
- 20001211X14222
- Case number
- ATL92LA067
- 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 1992-03-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 17fb83aafa5467261b51d28345ae8da76ceb62f0f288c06d93f3525446d9ef19; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:18:39.231Z.