LAX83LA229 · Cessna 182R
Parsons Air Cessna 182R · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) to Duckwater Airport (01U)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83LA229
- 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 182R
- 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
- N9951H
- Operator
- Parsons Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NVTo Duckwater Airport (01U), DUCKWATER, 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 · 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Raising of flaps, premature
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, delayed
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, not possible
- Weather condition › Tornado
- Weather condition › Windshear
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN AFTER DESCENDING TO 600 FT AGL AND ENCOUNTERING A WEATHER PHENOMENON WHICH PROMPTED AN AIRSPEED DECAY AND UNCOMMANDED LOSS OF ALTITUDE. TWO OTHER ACFT IN THE FLT OF 3 EXPERIENCED THE SAME PHENOMENON TO A LESSER DEGREE APPARENTLY BECAUSE OF THEIR HIGHER ALT AGL. THE PILOT OF ONE OF THE ACCOMPANYING ACFT LANDED ON A NEARBY ROAD AFTER SEEING THE ACCIDENT AND IN PROCEEDING TO THE SCENE SAW A 'HUGE DUST DEVIL. HE ALSO SAID THE WIND WOULD SHIFT FROM 300 DEGREES TO ABOUT 120 DEGREES THEN SHIFT TO 60 DEGREES WITH A BUFFET BEFORE RETURNING TO THE PREVAILING 300 DEGREES. THE TWO CLOSEST WEATHER STATIONS 45 OR MORE MILES AWAY ARE SEPARATED FROM DUCKATER BY MOUNTAIN RANGES. THE PILOT OF THE ACCIDENT ACFT WAS STABILIZED IN FLT WITH 10 DEGREES OF FLAPS AT 85 KTS WHEN HE NOTED A DROP IN AIRSPEED TO 70 KTS AND THEN 60 KTS AND A VERTICAL SPEED OF 500-700 FT PER MINUTE DESCENT. WHEN THE AIRSPEED CONTINUED TO DROP THE PILOT ADDED FULL POWER AND RETRACTED THE FLAPS. THE ACFT CONTINUED TO DESCEND AT 1000-1200 FT PER MINUTE UNTIL IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83LA229
- Event ID
- 20001214X43045
- Case number
- LAX83LA229
- 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: c05c0081751e0c54cf6adee280e72ad11bd2e19a43c6deec8ff608ce8be57204; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:41:29.089Z.