CHI90FA235 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90FA235
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N4547B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Takeoff
- 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 › Altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING PREFLIGHT THE AIRPLANE OWNER WAS APPROACHED BY TWO VISITING PILOTS, ONE OF WHOM WAS INTERESTED IN BUYING THE SAME MODEL. AFTER A LENGTHY CONVERSATION, THE OWNER STARTED AND TAXIED. THE VISITORS RADIOED HIM AND ASKED FOR A RIDE. THE ACCIDENT PILOT CONSENTED AND SAID HE WOULD COME BACK FOR PICKUP AFTER A TURN AROUND THE PATTERN. THE AIRPLANE TOOK OFF AND CLIMBED STEEPLY TO A 100-FOOT LEVEL-OFF. AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND 200 FEET, THE AIRPLANE TURNED RIGHT, OPPOSITE THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, AND CIRCLED BACK TO RUNWAY HEADING, THEN INCREASED BANK TO NEAR 90 DEGREES AND MAINTAINED IT UNTIL OUT OF SIGHT OF WITNESSES. THE AIRPLANE LOST ALTITUDE STEADILY FOR ONE HALF TURN TO GROUND CONTACT WHERE IT DRAGGED THE RIGHT WING AND CARTWHEELED. ANGLE OF BANK AT IMPACT WAS ABOUT 30 DEGREES AND RATE OF DESCENT WAS NIL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE CLEARANCE ABOVE TERRAIN WHILE MANEUVERING DURING TAKEOFF. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S ATTEMPT TO DISPLAY THE AIRCRAFT'S PERFORMANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90FA235
- Event ID
- 20001212X23932
- Case number
- CHI90FA235
- 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: ae62fe376c25852d8aee51f289f2c75db366f4b8b8a7c17c4b7cbb484d2fb438; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:21:20.571Z.