CHI88FA237 · Cessna 182RG
Cessna 182RG · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From 42T · Zanesville, OH to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88FA237
- 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
- 2 · 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 182RG
- 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
- N9877C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 42T · Zanesville, OHTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, performed
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE VFR PILOT AND HIS STUDENT PILOT RATED RIGHT SEAT PASSENGER DEPARTED THE AIRPORT WHILE IT WAS STILL DARK, IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS WITH EXTREMELY RESTRICTED VISIBILITIES DUE TO DENSE FOG (WITNESSES ESTIMATED AS LITTLE AS 15 FEET VISIBILITY IN AREAS). ABOUT 15 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF, THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK TREES AND IMPACTED AN AREA OF HIGH TERRAIN NORTHEAST OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. A LOCAL RESIDENT REPORTED HEARING THE SOUND OF AN ENGINE, LOUD AND RUNNING STEADY, COMING TOWARD HIS HOUSE. HE HEARD A THUD AND THE ENGINE NOISE QUIT. HE STATED THAT IT SOUNDED SO CLOSE THAT HE THOUGHT IT WAS THE NEWSPAPER DELIVERY TRUCK ON THE ROAD. THE AIRCRAFT WRECKAGE AND IT'S OCCUPANTS WERE DISCOVERED ABOUT 4 HOURS LATER. POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT AIRFRAME/ENGINE/SYSTEM MALFUNCTION/FAILURE. WITNESSES STATED THAT THE PILOT FREQUENTLY OPERATED IN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POOR JUDGEMENT/DECISION-MAKING, AND HIS OVER CONFIDENCE IN HIS OWN ABILITY WHICH LED TO HIS REPEATED DECISIONS TO OPERATE HIS AIRCRAFT IN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS. THE FACT THAT THE PILOT HAD OPERATED THE AIRCRAFT IN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS WITHOUT INCIDENT ON NUMEROUS PREVIOUS OCCASIONS CONTRIBUTED TO HIS OVER CONFIDENCE/ EXPECTANCY ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88FA237
- Event ID
- 20001213X26784
- Case number
- CHI88FA237
- 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: 1afa7d25236232089935cb36f3b2a5a2699e0e86be66fd833f162b52a288ca91; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:33:46.290Z.