CHI92LA112 · Cessna 182Q
Cessna 182Q · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET) to Houghton County Memorial Airport (CMX)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA112
- 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
- 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 182Q
- 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
- N96381
- Operator
- Olszewski, John N. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET), DETROIT CITY, MITo Houghton County Memorial Airport (CMX), Houghton, MI
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE HAD IN EXCESS OF 32 OUNCES OF WATER DRAINED FROM THE WING TANKS AND CARBURETOR/FUEL SYSTEM BY THE PILOT'S MECHANIC AND THE PILOT IN PREPARATION FOR A NIGHT CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. THE MECHANIC REPORTED HE DRAINED AND FLUSHED THE SYSTEM ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER'S RECOMMENDATIONS. THE PILOT SAID HE REFUELED THE AIRPLANE WITH 88 GALLONS OF FRESH AV GAS AND WAITED 10-15 MINUTES PRIOR TO CHECKING THE WING AND BELLY SUMPS FOR WATER. HE FOUND NO WATER AND BEGAN HIS FLIGHT. APPROXIMATELY 3 HOURS LATER HE MADE A FORCED LANDING IN TREES FOLLOWING A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. INSPECTION OF THE CARBURETOR AND FUEL SYSTEM POST ACCIDENT REVEALED SIGNIFICANT QUANTITIES OF WATER. THE FUEL TANK FROM WHICH THE AIRPLANE WAS REFUELED PRIOR TO FLIGHT WAS FOUND FREE OF SIGNIFICANT CONTAMINATES. WHEN FRESH,UNCONTAMINATED FUEL WAS FED TO THE ENGINE, IT STARTED AND RAN NORMALLY.
Probable cause
THE INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSPECTION TO REMOVE WATER FROM THE FUEL SYSTEM, AND THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA112
- Event ID
- 20001211X14264
- Case number
- CHI92LA112
- 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 1992-03-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0e86503a923de16b9abdbce977bece947a09a6899e3db755dafc0818f4a1a8a7; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:04:50.168Z.