Freight Runners Express Cessna 402A accident
Cessna 402A · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM) to General Mitchell International Airport (MKE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90FA066
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N4532Q
- Operator
- Freight Runners Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM), Menominee, MITo General Mitchell International Airport (MKE), Milwaukee, WI
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · IFR final approach
- 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
- 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 › Decision height, disregarded
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES AND TERRAIN DURING A THIRD ATTEMPT AT AN ILS APPROACH. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED APPROXIMATELY TWO MILES BEYOND THE AIRPORT ON THE EXTENDED CENTERLINE OF THE LANDING RUNWAY. IN AN INTERVIEW THE PILOT RELATED THAT ON HIS FIRST APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT HE SAW THE RUNWAY AND OBSERVED VEHICLES ON THE TAXIWAY AS HE PERFORMED HIS MISSED APPROACH. WHEN HE WAS ASKED THE REASON FOR THE SECOND MISSED APPROACH HE SAID IT WAS BECAUSE OF INSTRUMENT FLUCTUATIONS ON HIS COURSE DIRECTION INDICATOR. DURING THIS PERIOD HE ASKED THAT THE LIGHTS BE SET TO HIGH INTENSITY BECAUSE HE COULD NOT SEE THEM. THE LIGHTS WERE VERIFIED AS BEING SET FOR HIGH INTENSITY. HE DID NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING OF THE THIRD APPROACH AFTER HE PASSED THE OUTER MARKER. SNOW REMOVAL OPERATIONS WERE IN PROGRESS DURING THE PERIOD THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE WAS MAKING APPROACHES TO THE AIRPORT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT DISREGARDING THE PUBLISHED DECISION HEIGHT AND NOT PERFORMING A MISSED APPROACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90FA066
- Event ID
- 20001212X22385
- Case number
- CHI90FA066
- 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 1990-01-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 10a451cbcc76f49c7efb907da8b2b76175bcecf5d77c80dc96cae7507b438255; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:05:33.190Z.