Island Airlines Cessna 207 accident
Cessna 207 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Whalen Heliport (OH30) to Kelleys Island Land Field (89D)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI84FA058
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 207
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 207
- 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
- N208JP
- Operator
- Island Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Whalen Heliport (OH30), PUT-IN-BAY, OHTo Kelleys Island Land Field (89D), KELLEYS ISLAND, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Put-in-Bay, OH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT & 3 PASSENGERS TOOK OFF AT NIGHT ON AN OVER WATER FLT TO AN ISLAND IN LAKE ERIE TO PROVIDE HELP TO A HEART PATIENT. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED & NO RECORD OF A WX BRIEFING WAS FOUND. REPORTEDLY, AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ACFT DISAPPEARED IN A CLOUD OR HAZE. ALSO AFTER DEPARTING, SHERIFF'S PERSONNEL RECEIVED A RADIO CALL FROM THE ACFT STATING 'WE ARE IN IT.' ACCORDING TO LOCAL RESIDENTS, THERE WAS PATCHY FOG IN THE AREA. WHEN THE ACFT DID NOT ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. THE PLANE WAS FOUND IN LAKE ERIE ALONG THE EXPECTED ROUTE OF FLT. THE ACFT WAS INTACT, EXCEPT THE ENG WAS LOOSE FROM THE FIREWALL & THERE WAS MAJOR DAMAGE TO THE RIGHT, OUTER WING PANEL. NO PREIMPACT/MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION/FAILURE WAS FOUND. ABOUT 45 MI WEST AT TOLEDO, OH, THE 2150 WX IN PART WAS: 1500 FT OVERCAST, VISIBILITY VARIABLE 1 TO 2 MI WITH FOG, TEMP 32, DEW POINT 31, WIND FROM 330 DEG AT 4 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI84FA058
- Event ID
- 20001214X45241
- Case number
- CHI84FA058
- 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 1983-12-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 94f835cfea7a5cb599ffa18ff959cf0f7d5b115582a3a574ab8631964f31dbfe; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:29:21.589Z.