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CHI99FA252 · Cessna 182D

26 Jul 1999 · Fond du Lac, WI, United States

Cessna 182D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach

From Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI) to Fond du Lac County Airport (FLD)

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
CHI99FA252
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 182D

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
N8878X
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route Possible conflict
From Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI), Cape Girardeau, MOTo Fond du Lac County Airport (FLD)
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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 exhaustion
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

  • Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
  • Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fond du Lac, WI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

The airplane collided with the terrain during a forced landing following a total loss of engine power. The airplane departed Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where the airplane was topped off with 50 gallons of 100LL aviation fuel. They departed Cape Girardeau at 1720 cdt with the intention of landing at Oshkosh. Upon reaching the Oshkosh area the pilot was notified the airport was closed. The pilot stated he decided to land at Fond Du Lac so he turned to the east, contacted the Fond Du Lac tower, and was cleared to land on runway 18. On final approach the engine lost all power. A forced landing was made in a soft soy bean field north of the airport. Post accident inspection of the airplane revealed no fuel present in the fuel tanks.

Probable cause

the pilot's inaccurate fuel consumption calculations and the subsequent fuel exhaustion. Factors associated with the accident were the crops and the soft field conditions.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI99FA252
Event ID
20001212X19168
Case number
CHI99FA252
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 1999-07-27.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: a4c24f939e6e4dd6656c47494c940a2c554dc8e84e3c792d51d00acc547c7385; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:27:15.922Z.