Northland Air Freight Cessna 207 accident
Cessna 207 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD) to Crystal Airport (MIC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88FA092
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 207
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 207
- 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
- N207CA
- Operator
- Northland Air Freight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD), Sioux Falls, SDTo Crystal Airport (MIC), Crystal, 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 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
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT FOR APRX 8 MINUTES IN ERRATIC DIVING, CLIMBING, AND STEEP-TURNING MANEUVERS WHICH CULMINATED IN A 12 DEGREE DESCENT TO THE GROUND. THE SOUND OF THE ENG WAS HEARD THROUGHOUT THE SEQUENCE AND OTHER EVIDENCE INDICATED ENGINE POWER AT IMPACT. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK TREES, A FARM BLDG, FARM EQUIPMENT, AND A VEHICLE, THEN BURST INTO FLAMES. THE WRECKAGE WAS STREWN ALONG A 320 FT PATH. NO EVIDENCE OF FLIGHT CONTROL MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE PLT CLAIMED AN UPSET STOMACH BEFORE THE FLT. THE PILOT'S SPEECH WAS SLURRED IN RADIO TRANSMISSIONS. THE PLT DID NOT RESPOND TO THE LAST RADIO CALL FROM SIOUX FALLS TOWER. NO EMERGENCY OR DISTRESS CALLS WERE RECEIVED FROM THE PILOT. THE POSTMORTEM EXAM OF THE PLT DID NOT IDENTIFY SPECIFIC IMPAIRMENT BUT WAS LIMITED DUE TO THE SEVERITY OF THE IMPACT AND FIRE DAMAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88FA092
- Event ID
- 20001213X25426
- Case number
- CHI88FA092
- 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: 32834089e40de0ced804c95f9f125f0557262343a2cd9f93a80655236a821dff; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:11:37.133Z.