LAX86FA063 · Cessna TR182
Cessna TR182 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From 005 · Davis, CA to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86FA063
- 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
- Unknown
Cessna TR182
- 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
- N737SG
- Operator
- Charles A. Woodstock · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 005 · Davis, CATo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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 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 › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH MOUTAINOUS TERRAIN (TRRN) AT AN APRX ELEV OF 13,500 FT. PREVIOUSLY, THE PLT HAD REQUESTED & WAS RCVG TRAFFIC ADVISORIES FM ARTCC. BFR THE ACDNT, THE ACFT'S PSN & ALT (MODE C REPLY) WERE NOTED BY THE CONTROLLER (CTLR). NO TRRN/OBSTN ALERT WAS ISSUED; HOWEVER, AT THAT TIME, THE FLT WAS OPERATING UNDER VISUAL FLIGHT RULES. ALSO, IT WAS NEAR A ROUTE OFTEN USED BY VFR ACFT TO CROSS OVER THE MTNS, SO NO SAFETY ALERT WAS REQUIRED (ALTHO AFTER THE ACDNT, OAKLAND ARTCC BEGAN PROVIDING TRRN/OBSTN ALERTS TO VFR ACFT AS AN ADNL SERVICE). THE ACFT CRASHED INTO 32 DEG UPSLOPING TRRN BELOW MT KEITH (ELEV 13,976 FT), APRX 8 MI NNW OF MT WHITNEY. ON THE LATEST SECTIONAL CHART, THERE WAS A NOTE (APRX 1/2 INCH FM THE CRASH LOCATION) WHICH STATED 'CAUTION - RAPIDLY RISING TERRAIN.' ALSO, THE CHART HAD 2 MAX ELEV FIGURES WHICH SHOWED THAT NEARBY TRRN ROSE ABOVE 14,000 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86FA063
- Event ID
- 20001214X38427
- Case number
- LAX86FA063
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-12-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0f17a6a24a086c2cd5860a7cb082660bc49431d6077411f922bb27ed158defaa; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:44:27.321Z.