CHI82DA041 · Cessna 172
Avsat Cessna 172 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Kalamazoo, MI to Benton Harbor
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI82DA041
- 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 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N9893J
- Operator
- Avsat
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kalamazoo, MITo Benton Harbor
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- 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, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING AT 1030 EST FOR A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT. THE CROSS-COUNTRY ORIGINATED AT BENTON HARBOR AT 1100 EST USING RUNWAY 27. AT THAT TIME, THE RUNWAY WAS BARE AND DRY. THE FLIGHT PROCEEDED TO BATTLE CREEK AND KALAMAZOO, AND THEN RETURNED TO BENTON HARBOR AT ABOUT 1415 EST. BEFORE ARRIVING, THE PILOT CALLED BENTON HARBOR FOR WIND AND RUNWAY CONDITIONS, BUT RECEIVED NO REPLY. WHILE ENTERING THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, THE PILOT OBSERVED THE WIND FROM ABOUT 200 DEGREES AND SAW SMALL FINGER-LIKE DRIFTS PROTRUDING OUT ONTO RUNWAY 27 FOR ABOUT 1/4 OF ITS WIDTH. RUNWAYS 13/31 AND 18/36 HAD NOT BEEN PLOWED FOR 4 WEEKS AND WERE CLOSED. CONSIDERING THE REMAINING WIDTH OF RUNWAY 27 AND ITS EXCELLENT CONDITION AT 1100 EST, THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS A MODERATE-TO-STRONG CROSSWIND. ON TOUCHDOWN GLARE ICE WAS ENCOUNTERED ON THE ENTIRE WIDTH OF THE RUNWAY. AS THE AIRCRAFT SLOWED, THE WIND BLEW IT OFF OF THE RIGHT SIDE WHERE IT MOMENTARILY WENT UP ON ITS NOSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI82DA041
- Event ID
- 20020917X01792
- Case number
- CHI82DA041
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 7b8854fd2f80a318ea6708b32881456c2a06f9fc59faf28cec6bdf8a13014d3c; retrieved 2026-09-24T03:42:38.100Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the flight originated at Benton Harbor, "PROCEEDED TO BATTLE CREEK AND KALAMAZOO, AND THEN RETURNED TO BENTON HARBOR", where the landing accident happened; Eau Claire, WI is not mentioned.