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LAX90FA068 · Cessna 182P

7 Jan 1990 · Napa, CA, United States

Cessna 182P · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach

From Buchanan Field (CCR) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX90FA068
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
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 182P

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
N1283S
Operator
Shieman, David F. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CATo 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
Approach · IFR missed 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 terrain/water
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 › IFR procedure, improper
  • Pilot in command › Navigation receiver, improper use of

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WHILE EXECUTING AN INSTRUMENT MISSED APPROACH. THE RECORDED RADAR DATA SHOWED THAT THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 4 MILES PAST THE MISSED APPROACH POINT WHEN THE TURN WAS INITIATED. THE VOR RWY 6 APPROACH HAS A 620 FT MDA AND THE MISSED APPROACH POINT IS DEFINED AS 3.8 DME ON THE SCAGGS ISLAND VOR 050 RADIAL. THE RADAR DATA SHOWED THE ACFT CROSSED OVER THE AIRPORT DESCENDING THROUGH 1,800 FT MSL. THE LOWEST ALT ACHIEVED BY THE ACFT WAS 900 FT MSL, WHICH OCCURRED JUST BEFORE THE ACFT INITIATED THE MISSED APPROACH TURN. THE DME UNIT IN THE AIRCRAFT CAN FUNCTION IN BOTH AN INTERNAL FREQ MODE AND A REMOTE MODE. IN THE REMOTE MODE THE DME PROVIDES INFO FROM THE NAV RADIOS. IN THE INTERNAL MODE, THE UNIT GIVES INFO BASED ON THE FREQ SET IN THE UNITS INTERNAL MEMORY. EXAM OF THE DME REVEALED THAT THE UNIT WAS IN THE INTERNAL MODE AND SELECTED TO THE CONCORD VOR, NOT THE SCAGGS ISLAND VOR.

Probable cause

THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO PROPERLY EXECUTE THE PUBLISHED APPROACH AND MISSED APPROACH WHICH RESULTED IN A COLLISION WITH MOUNTAINIOUS TERRAIN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX90FA068
Event ID
20001212X22429
Case number
LAX90FA068
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: 874effa79644ec4d9383d566e118762edbaccd44ae95871dd72e102348d61bf5; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:02:50.092Z.