ATL85LA122 · Cessna 182L
Cessna 182L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during an emergency descent
From Cincinnati West Airport (I67) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85LA122
- 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 182L
- 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
- N42616
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cincinnati West Airport (I67), Harrison, OHTo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Emergency 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination; 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING FLT IN IMC CONDITIONS AT 9000 FT MSL, THE PLT NOTED A LOSS OF AIRSPEED INDICATIONS. HE REQUESTED & RECEIVED CLEARANCE TO DESCEND. DURING THE DESCENT, HE ELECTED TO DIVERT & RECEIVED VECTORS FOR A NEARBY ARPT. HOWEVER, WHEN HE ATTEMPTED TO LEVEL OFF, THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO THE ENG. HE WAS UNABLE TO GLIDE TO AN ARPT & SUBSEQUENTLY WAS FORCED TO LAND IN A WOODED AREA. DURING THE LANDING, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES ON STEEP TERRAIN. AN INVESTIGATIONREVEALED THE SURFACE TEMP & DUE POINT WERE 50 & 38 DEG, RESPECTIVELY, THUS THE TEMP AT 9000 FT WOULD HAVE BEEN AT OR NEAR FREEZING. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS, CARB ICING CONDITIONS WERE PROBABLE DURING THE DESCENT FROM 9000 TO 3000 FT. ALSO, WATER WAS FOUND IN THE GASCOLATOR, BUT NO OTHER PREIMPACT PROBLEMS WERE FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85LA122
- Event ID
- 20001214X35837
- Case number
- ATL85LA122
- 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: 698bba54d472ed73ab6a664a3dbab3b62af86a2e7276000b83330adaca153578; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:20:05.020Z.