FTW02FA118 · Cessna T182
Cessna T182 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL) to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02FA118
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna T182
- 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
- N983HH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), Fort Collins, COTo Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA), Amarillo, TX
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into adverse weather, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot obtained two weather briefings prior to the takeoff for a visual flight rules day cross-country flight to Amarillo (AMA), Texas. His estimated arrival time at AMA was 1000 central daylight time (cdt). According to the weather briefings, the forecast for AMA indicated occasional visibility of 5 statute miles, mist, and overcast clouds at 2,000 feet. The pilot was also advised of a lingering stationary front in the Texas Panhandle and thunderstorms in the area. At 0818 cdt, the pilot radioed a flight service station over a flight watch frequency to obtain updated weather for AMA. The pilot was informed that a convective sigmet was in effect, and that flight under visual flight rules was not recommended. The briefer also informed the pilot that the forecast for AMA for the next 90 minutes indicated an occasional ceiling of broken clouds at 600 feet. At 0927 cdt, a special weather observation for AMA indicated visibility of 4 statute miles, mist, broken clouds at 300 feet, and overcast clouds at 700 feet. At 0933 cdt, the pilot contacted approach control, confirmed he had the current ATIS, and requested Special VFR to the airport, advising the controller that he was at 3,700 feet mean sea level (msl) (AMA airport elevation is 3,607 feet msl). At 0940 cdt, the pilot reported he was 8 miles north of the airport, and between 3,700 feet and 3,800 feet msl. Radar contact was established when the airplane was 6 miles north of AMA. At 0941 cdt, the controller issued the pilot permission to enter Class C airspace and to maintain Special VFR conditions. The pilot confirmed the clearance. Subsequent attempts by the controller to establish communications with N983HH proved unsuccessful. The airplane impacted a power plant 5 miles northwest of the airport at the 154 foot level. Witnesses who observed the aircraft just prior to the accident reported very foggy conditions. No aircraft or engine anomalies were noted that would have prevented normal operations.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance with the power plant while maneuvering, and his intentional flight into adverse weather conditions. Contributing factors were low clouds, fog, the power plant, and low altitude flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02FA118
- Event ID
- 20020416X00519
- Case number
- FTW02FA118
- 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, coordinates. 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: 98f65986f207670883a6b38998d3343e925692014ede7e8e81041daae267b040; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:03:03.592Z.