MKC90LA040 · Piper PA-32-301
Piper PA-32-301 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) to O'Neill Municipal Airport–John L Baker Field (ONL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC90LA040
- 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
- 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
Piper PA-32-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8157R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD), Rockford, ILTo O'Neill Municipal Airport–John L Baker Field (ONL), Norfolk, NE
- 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
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE, THE PLT ENCTRD HEADWINDS, BUT HE THOUGHT HE HAD SUFFICIENT FUEL FOR THE FLT. HOWEVER, DURING A VOR APCH TO LAND AT NIGHT, HE ENCTRD LOW CLOUDS & WAS UNABLE TO SEE THE AIRPORT AT THE MISSED APCH POINT (MAP). HE EXECUTED A MISSED APCH & CONTACTED MINNEAPOLIS CENTER 'FOR ALTERNATE AIRPORT WITH ILS OR KNOWN VFR CONDITIONS DUE TO FUEL CONCERN.' VECTORS WERE PROVIDED, BUT HIS FUEL WAS EXHAUSTED BEFORE REACHING A SUITABLE AIRPORT. SUBSEQUENTLY, AN EMERGENCY LANDING WAS MADE IN A CATTLE FEED LOT. BEFORE STOPPING, THE ACFT HIT A FEED TROUGH & WAS DAMAGED.
Probable cause
INPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT AND HIS DELAY IN DIVERTING TO AN ALTERNATE AIRPORT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO AN INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRCRAFT, AND DARK NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC90LA040
- Event ID
- 20001213X30002
- Case number
- MKC90LA040
- 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 1989-12-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 522dbbb988473d2a96a040ff5205d501dbd45778c9db1e8b7e65832f92ee931e; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:53:39.345Z.