BFO85FA071 · Cessna R182
Dulles Aviation Cessna R182 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From W10 · Manassas, VA to Morgantown Municipal Airport Walter L. (Bill) Hart Field (MGW)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85FA071
- 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 R182
- 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
- N7393Y
- Operator
- Dulles Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W10 · Manassas, VATo Morgantown Municipal Airport Walter L. (Bill) Hart Field (MGW), Morgantown, WV
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG A WX BRIEFING, FLT PRCTNS FOR OCNL MTN OBSCN & IMC WERE RELAYED TO THE PLT, BUT HE WAS NOT PROVIDED A FORECAST FOR THUNDERSTORMS, NOR ADVISED VFR FLT WAS NOT RCMDD. THE ROUTE OF FLT WAS PORTRAYED AS MARGINAL VFR, AS WAS THE DESTN AT MORGANTOWN (MGM). ALSO, THE PLT WAS ADVISED THE MGM WX WAS PARTIALLY OBSCURED, ESTD CEILING 1700' OVERCAST, VIS 1 MI WITH MODERATE RAIN & FOG. THE BRIEFER TERMED THESE CONDS AS MARGINAL VFR & STATED 'LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE FORECASTING TO CONTINUE TO DETERIORATE THROUGH TONIGHT & BECOME IFR BY MORNING.' THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PLT TOOK OFF ON THE FLT (TO TRANSPORT A PAX TO A HIGH SCHOOL REUNION). THEY WERE TO BE MET AT THE DESTN BY FAMILY MEMBERS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT STRUCK THE 2900' LVL OF AN OBSCURED 3368' MTN BTN MANASSAS & MGM. THE WRECKAGE PATH WAS ALONG A SOUTHEASTERLY DIRECTION TOWARD MANASSAS. THE PLT HAD RECENTLY FLOWN ABOUT 1 HR OF DUAL INSTRUCTION IN ACTUAL IMC, BUT HIS TOTAL INSTRUMENT TIME WAS NOT DETERMINED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85FA071
- Event ID
- 20001214X37387
- Case number
- BFO85FA071
- 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: 896a97c6580e70dedce2e91459740685881b02674218774419c60320eaaee463; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:52:42.433Z.