CHI02FAMS1 · Cessna R182
Cessna R182 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From James M. Cox Dayton International Airport (DAY) to John H Batten Airport (RAC)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02FAMS1
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 R182
- 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
- N2359C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From James M. Cox Dayton International Airport (DAY), Dayton, OHTo John H Batten Airport (RAC), Racine, WI
- 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
- 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 airplane was destroyed during an in-flight collision with water following a rapid descent from 2,400 feet msl. The descent lasted approximately 32 seconds and the average and maximum descent rates were about 2,600 feet/min and 4,200 feet/min, respectively. A commercial salvage company located the wreckage debris field approximately eight months after the accident. The center of the debris field was approximately 1,500 feet east of the last recorded radar track position. The debris field was approximately 550 feet square and contained airframe structural components, avionics, engine exhaust components, and personal artifacts for at least two occupants. The main wreckage was not recovered. The only components salvaged were the cabin heat muff/shroud, carburetor heat muff, and assorted avionic equipment. The serial numbers for the recovered avionic equipment established that the wreckage was from N2359C. The recovered engine exhaust components were examined and no discrepancies were identified to have been present prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The uncontrolled descent for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02FAMS1
- Event ID
- 20011227X02444
- Case number
- CHI02FAMS1
- 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 2001-12-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5ac0467c92781e6861466660e78372ffe4623a8a9599ab185eafc01da865ebb9; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:16:13.438Z.