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MKC87FA020 · Cessna 182A

17 Nov 1986 · BLUFF CITY, KS, United States

Cessna 182A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Hutchinson Municipal Airport (HUT) to Enid Woodring Regional Airport (WDG)

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Event

NTSB case
MKC87FA020
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
1 · 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 182A

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
N2038G
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Hutchinson Municipal Airport (HUT), Hutchinson, KSTo Enid Woodring Regional Airport (WDG), Enid, OK
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 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
Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
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 › Altitude, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
  • Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT STATED THAT HE WAS CRUISING AT 2,500 FT MSL EN ROUTE SOUTHBOUND TO ENID, OKLAHOMA, WHEN HE ENCOUNTERED FOG BUT FLEW FOR 15 TO 20 MINUTES BEFORE EXECUTING A 180DEG NORTHERLY TURN BACK TO HUTCHINSON, KS. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, HE WAS IN THE CLOUDS TRYING TO FLY OUT OF IFR CONDITIONS WHEN THE ACFT FLEW INTO THE GROUND AND HE LOST CONCIOUSNESS. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RECORDS SHOW FORECASTS, VALID FOR APRX THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, CALLING FOR IMC AND MARGINAL VMC THROUGHOUT OKLAHOMA AND SOUTHERN KANSAS. THE PLT FURTHER STATED THAT HE RECEIVED NO WEATHER BRIEFING AND FILED NO FLIGHT PLAN. POST ACCIDENT CALCULATIONS REVEAL THAT THE ACFT IMPACTED THE TERRAIN IN A SHALLOW DESCENT NEAR CRUISE POWER. IT PORPOISED AND WHEELBARROWED BEFORE DIGGING IN THE SOFT DIRT. THE NOSE GEAR SHEARED OFF AND THE ACFT FLIPPED INVERTED, SHEDDING IT'S RIGHT CABIN DOOR AND EJECTING THE PLT RATED PASSENGER.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC87FA020
Event ID
20001213X35238
Case number
MKC87FA020
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: e49013441f9a8d201ece6945d3f75e330dee941d3d1b6a017109b6769402abaa; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:19:56.278Z.