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ATL85FA101 · Cessna 182R

19 Feb 1985 · BURKES GARDEN, VA, United States

Dulles Aviation Cessna 182R · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From W10 · Manassas, VA to Bomar Field / Shelbyville Municipal Airport (SYI)

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Event

NTSB case
ATL85FA101
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
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 182R

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
N2370E
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From W10 · Manassas, VATo Bomar Field / Shelbyville Municipal Airport (SYI), Shelbyville, TN
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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, poor
  • Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
  • Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, improper

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Burkes Garden, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT DEPARTED MANASSAS WITHOUT A CURRENT WX BRIEFING OR FILING A FLT PLAN. PLT HAD ALSO LEFT MAPS AND A LIST OF CHECKPOINTS AT HOME. HIS ROUTE OF FLT WAS INTO AN AREA OF LOW CEILINGS AND VISIBILITY. THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A MOUNTAIN AT THE 3850 FT LEVEL. WITNESSES IN THE AREA STATED THAT MOUNTAIN TOPS WERE OBSCURED AND VISIBILITY WAS POOR DUE TO FOG AND DRIZZLE. PLT WAS REPORTEDLY UNDER MENTAL STRESS DUE TO RECENT PERSONAL EVENTS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL85FA101
Event ID
20001214X35624
Case number
ATL85FA101
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: a09c53ef32ceaaaf5ddaa925fb296725b588208d3c8bfb7b157062edd090ba58; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:08:43.539Z.