CHI92FA231 · Cessna 120
Cessna 120 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Rusk County Airport (RCX) to Duluth International Airport (DLH)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92FA231
- 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
- 2 · 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 120
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 120
- 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
- N1947N
- Operator
- Day, Daniel M. & Patrick K.
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rusk County Airport (RCX), Ladysmith, WITo Duluth International Airport (DLH), Duluth, MN
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vne), exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT CONTACTED THE APPROACH CONTROL FACILITY AND DECLARED '...MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY WE ARE IMC ACCIDENTAL....' THE PILOT REPORTED HE WAS NOT QUALIFIED AND THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT EQUIPPED FOR FLIGHT IN INSTRUMENT CONDITIONS. ATC ADVISED THE PILOT OF THE MINIMUM SAFE ALTITUDE IN THE AREA, AND ATTEMPTED TO GUIDE THE PILOT TO VFR CONDITIONS. ONE HOUR AND THREE MINUTES AFTER THE INITIAL RADIO CONTACT, THE PILOT STATED '...WE'RE IN TROUBLE AGAIN....VNE IS EXCEEDED.' NO FURTHER INTELLIGIBLE COMMUNICATIONS WERE RECEIVED FROM THE PILOT. THE AIRCRAFT WRECKAGE WAS SCATTERED ALONG A PATH 2,350 FEET LONG, WITH THE RIGHT WING PANEL LOCATED FARTHEST FROM THE MAIN FUSELAGE. WEATHER IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN WAS MARGINAL VFR TO IFR THROUGHOUT THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT. A WITNESS REPORTED OBTAINING A WEATHER REPORT FOR THE PILOT AND REVIEWING IT WITH HIM A FEW HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92FA231
- Event ID
- 20001211X15344
- Case number
- CHI92FA231
- 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: a4a2f3e4618068915a11462bc8aa0e6aa395caf5a1e1358e296ef6eb66e1dda3; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:00:13.903Z.