MKC87LA174 · Cessna 120
Cessna 120 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Harvard State Airport (08K) to Wausa, NE
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87LA174
- 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
Cessna 120
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 120
- 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
- N2061V
- Operator
- Dough Livgren
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harvard State Airport (08K), Harvard, NETo Wausa, 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT DPTD HARVARD, NE., WITH A DEST OF WAUSA, NE ABT 1 HRS FLYING DIST TO THE NORTHEAST. THE DEPARTURE COMMENCED ABT 1 HR AND 40 MIN'S PRIOR TO DARK. THE PIC STATED HE ENCOUNTERED STRONG HEADWINDS ALONG THE ROUTE WHICH DELAYED HIS PROGRESS. THE ACFT ARRIVED AT WAUSA AFTER DARK. THE PIC RPTD NO RWY LTNG AVAILABLE. THE PIC THEN CHANGED HIS COURSE TO LAND AT BLOOMFIELD, NE. THE PIC STATED NO LTNG WAS AVAILABLE THERE EITHER. THE FLT WAS CONTINUED TO CREIGHTON, NE. AGAIN THE PIC RPTD NO LNDG LTGS AVAILABLE, BUT DUE TO A LOW FUEL STATE, THE PIC DECIDED TO LAND. THE PIC STATED THAT DURING THE LNDG ROLL IN THE DARK, THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED SOFT TERRAIN AND FLIPPED INVERTED. THE ACFT WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH A LNDG LIGHT, NOR A RADIO. EACH ARPT WHERE A LNDG WAS ATTEMPTED, WERE EQUIPPED WITH RADIO XMSN ACTIVATED RWY LGTS. AN OPERABLE TRANSCEIVER IS MANDATORY TO ACTIVATE RWY LGTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87LA174
- Event ID
- 20001213X32164
- Case number
- MKC87LA174
- 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 1987-09-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 29746a253e4ea1d6ac25423fe864505ac027b64c0eb0446591c8b5ea5560aacf; retrieved 2026-09-23T12:01:35.729Z.