DEN87FA219 · Cessna 182P
Cessna 182P · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Cheyenne Regional Jerry Olson Field (CYS) to Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (SBS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN87FA219
- 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
- 3 · 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 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
- N1359S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cheyenne Regional Jerry Olson Field (CYS), Cheyenne, WYTo Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (SBS), STEAMBOAT SPGS, CO
- 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 · descent
- 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
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ON A FLT FM GREEN BAY, WI TO STEAMBOAT SPGS (SBS), CO, WITH STOPS AT SIOUX CITY & CHEYENNE (CYS). AT 2245, HE CONTACTED DENVER FSS, STATED HE WAS ON FINAL APCH TO SBS & SAID THE RWY LGTS HAD GONE OUT. HE THEN ASKED FOR THE FREQFOR 'PUTTING THEM BACK ON.' THE FSS SPECIALIST CHECKED THE ARPT DIRECTORY & FND NO FREQ LISTED FOR SBS, BUT TOLD THE PLT HE CLD 'TRY FREQ 122.8 . . .' SOON THEREAFTER, THE PLT SAID HE HAD LGTS & CANCELLED HIS FLT PLAN. AT 2251, THE ACFTHIT PWR LINES, CRASHED & BURNED APRX MIDWAY BTN SBS & THE YAMPA VALLEY ARPT AT HAYDEN (HDN), CO. THE CRASH SITE WAS IN AVALLEY AREA AT AN ELEV OF ABOUT 6000' MSL. ELEV OF THE ARPTS AT SBS & HDN WERE 6875' & 6597', RESPECTIVELY. THE RWY LGTSAT SBS WERE PRIVATELY OWNED BY ROCKY MOUNTAIN AIRWAYS & WERE TURNED OFF SOMETIME AFTER THE LAST FLT DEPD SBS AT 2025. THE RWY LGTS AT HDN WERE PLT CONTROLLED BY TUNING THE ACFT RADIO TO 122.8 MHZ & DEPRESSING THE MIKE BUTTON 3 TO 7 TIMES,DEPENDING ON THE DESIRED INTENSITY. THE FREQ AT SBS WAS ALSO 122.8 MHZ. NO PREIMPACT MECH PROBLEM WAS FND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN87FA219
- Event ID
- 20001213X31770
- Case number
- DEN87FA219
- 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 1987-08-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8b0dc39ea2dc87873b7157fca02a533a814ff085bfa38685913e668dc896f882; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:01:57.166Z.