G.P. Express Cessna 402C accident
Cessna 402C · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Alliance Municipal Airport (AIA) to Chadron Municipal Airport (CDR)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88FA032
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N105GP
- Operator
- G.P. Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alliance Municipal Airport (AIA), Alliance, NETo Chadron Municipal Airport (CDR), Chadron, 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 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
- 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 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS ON A FLT TO CHADRON VIA CHADRON VOR. ABT 30 MI SSE OF THE VOR, THE PLT REQD & WAS CLRD TO FLY DRCT TO ACKMEIAF FOR AN NDB RWY 2 APCH. THE ACFT CONTD TWD THE VOR WHICH WAS IN THE SAME GENERAL DRCTN, BUT 11.9 MI SOUTH OF ACKME. THE NDB WAS AT THE ARPT. ACKME IAF WAS 9 MI SW OF THE ARPT ON A BRG OF 227 DEG & DEFINED BY AN INTXN WITH THE 356 DEG RADIAL OF THE VOR. ABT 3 TO 4 MI SE OF THE VOR, RADAR SVC WAS TRMTD & FREQ CHG WAS MADE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT STRUCK TREES ON A RIDGE & CRASHED. INITIAL IMPACT OCCURRED IN WINGS LVL FLT AT APRX 4480' ON A DRCT ROUTE BTN THE VOR & ACKME IAF. AN INV REVEALED THAT AFTER THE FREQ CHG, THE ACFT CONTD TO THE VOR, THEN MNVRD AS IF THE PLT WAS FLYING THE NDB APCH, BUT WAS USING THE VOR AS THE IAF. RADAR DATA SHOWED CTC WAS LOST AFTER A PROCEDURE TURN WAS MADE & THE ACFT WAS OUTBND ABT 6 MI NE OF THE VOR. THE CRASH SITE, HOWEVER, WAS ABT 3 MI WSW OF WHERE RADAR CTC WAS LAST RECORDED. THE WX AT CHADRON WAS IN PART: 500' OVC, 1.5 MI VIS WITH LGT SNW & FOG. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88FA032
- Event ID
- 20001213X32760
- Case number
- MKC88FA032
- 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 1987-12-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 82a0b2feb6ceffb7af3bd746608c463908cd30a3ff0fb0f2f7d7c5c742719813; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:12:22.801Z.