SEA85FA012 · Cessna 182B
Cessna 182B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Sunriver Airport (S21) to Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA85FA012
- 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
- 4 · 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 182B
- 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
- N2612G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sunriver Airport (S21), SUN RIVER, ORTo Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR), Medford, OR
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, poor
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH RISING TERRAIN ABOUT 1800 FT BELOW THE CREST OF A RIDGE WHILE ON A PERSONAL FLT IN WX WHICH HAD MULTIPLE CLOUD LAYERS OBSURING THE MOUNTAINS. A CAP ACFT ON A SEARCH MISSION IN THE SAME AREA AT THE APRX TIME REPORTED MULTIPLE CLOUD LAYERS BETWEEN MEDFORD & SUNRIVER, OR. BOTH PLS INVOLVED IN THE ACCIDENT WERE CAP MEMBERS & HAD BEEN ON SEARCH MISSIONS IN THE AREA OF MEDFORD & SUNRIVER ON PREVIOUS FLTS. THE AREA OF THE CRASH IS HEAVILY WOODED WITHTREES OVER 150 FT HIGH. A 4 FT SECTION OF THE LEFT WING WAS FOUND NEAR A FOREST SERVICE ROAD. THE MAIN WRECKAGE WAS APRX900 FT AWAY ON A 180 DEGREE BEARING (MAG), AT THE 3750 FT LEVEL OF A 5580 FT MOUNTAIN. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED & NO RECORD OF A WX BRIEFING WAS FOUND. THE ACFT DEPARTED DURING A SNOW SHOWER WITH 4 PERSONS ON BOARD; WHEN IT FAILED TO ARRIVE AT MEDFORD A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. THE SEARCH WAS SUSPENDED WHEN NO FLT SIGNALS WERE RECEIVED. SIX DAYS LATER A HUNTER CAME UPON THE WRECKAGE. NO MEDICAL OR MECHANICAL REASON FOR THE ACCIDENT WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA85FA012
- Event ID
- 20001214X41474
- Case number
- SEA85FA012
- 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: 9ee2f30a3ff26d1351d8189d6f62650cb584bb86eee75f168bffaef1feb22184; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:17:35.405Z.