CHI86MA025 · Cessna 441
Cessna 441 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI86MA025
- 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
- 5 · 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 441
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 441
- 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
- N59MD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD), Rockford, ILTo Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE), Latrobe, PA
- 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
- Approach · IFR final 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 terrain/water
- 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 alignment, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARRIVAL, THE PLT WAS ADVISED THE DESTN WX WAS: ESTD 500' OVERCAST, VIS 1 MI WITH FOG, ARPT BLO MINS. THE PLT ELECTEDTO MAKE AN NDB RWY 23 APCH, BUT SAID HE WOULD DIVERT IF A MISSED APCH WAS MADE. HE WAS PROVIDED RADAR VECTORS & WAS CLRDFOR THE APCH. AT THE IAF (INITIAL APCH FIX/TINEY INTXN), RADAR SVC WAS TERMINATED & THE PLT WAS TOLD TO CONTACT TWR. ON TWR FREQ, THE PLT WAS AGAIN REMINDED THE ARPT WAS BLO MINS. APRX 2 MIN LATER, HE RPRTD OVR THE OUTER MARKER (OM) WHICH WAS 4.2 MI PAST (SW OF) THE NDB/FINAL APCH FIX (FAF) & 3.9 MI NE OF THE ARPT. SECONDS LATER, THE TWR X-MITTED INFO (JUSTRECD FM ARTCC) THAT THE ACFT WAS 2-1/2 MI EAST OF COURSE. TWR TRIED TO NOTIFY THE PLT, BUT RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST. INV REVEALED THE ACFT IMPACTED A RIDGE NRLY 4 MI PAST THE NDB & 2 MI LEFT OF COURSE AT AN ELEV OF APRX 1900', BUT BFR PASSING THE OM. MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) BTN THE NDB & OM WAS 2220' MSL. MDA AFTER PASSING THE 0M WAS 1940'; ARPT ELEV WAS 1161'. NO PREIMPACT ACFT PROBLEMS WERE FND. THE NDB FACILITY OPERATED SAFTISFACTORILY DURING FLT & GROUND CHECKS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI86MA025
- Event ID
- 20001214X38211
- Case number
- CHI86MA025
- 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: ab8abf5793c962698bc927f07b317d647ffb2872d7428302aae89fc0ea76fad3; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:46:42.281Z.