CHI84FA007 · Cessna 320Q
Cessna 320Q · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL) to Defiance Memorial Airport (DFI)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI84FA007
- 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
- 1 · 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 320Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N7529Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL), Cleveland, OHTo Defiance Memorial Airport (DFI), Defiance, OH
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ON A NIGHT X-COUNTRY FLT TO POSITION THE ACFT AT DEFIANCE, OH. IN THE VICINITY OF MALINTA, OH. SEVERAL WITNESSES HEARD AND/OR OBSERVED THE ACFT CIRCLING FOR APRX 5 TO 10 MIN. ABOUT 1/2 OF THOSE WHO HEARD THE ENG SOUNDS SAIDTHE ENGS WERE SPUTTERING OFF & ON. THE OTHERS RECALLED HEARING THE ENG INCREASE & DECREASE IN POWER SEVERAL TIMES. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT THE ENGS SEEMED TO LOSE POWER DURING DESCENTS, BUT WOULD REGAIN POWER AS THE ACFT ENTERED A CLIMB. THIS HAPPENED TWICE. ON THE 3RD DESCENT, THE ACFT CRASHED APRX 2 MI FROM THE HENRY ARPT. THE ARPT WAS EQUIPPED WITH RADIO ACTIVATED RWY LIGHTS. THE IMPACT OCCURRED IN A 19 DEG DESCENT, SLIGHTLY RIGHT WING LOW. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE WAS MADE, BUT NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. REPORTEDLY, THE ACFT HAD DEPARTED DETROIT, MI WITH 565 LBS & WOULD HAVE USED AN ESTIMATED 300 LBS, ENROUTE TO CLEVELAND & ANOTHER 300 LBS TO THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE OPERATOR ESTIMATED IT LEFT CLEVELAND WITH 70 GAL. AT 0620 EDT ON 10/3/83, THE PLT GOT A WX BRIEF FOR PREV FLT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI84FA007
- Event ID
- 20001214X44760
- Case number
- CHI84FA007
- 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: bba82417786fbc0f8ecbef5c4e9ad57d9be0a77cbdcd3a2d2707a1e86bc794d8; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:04:24.277Z.