DCA82AA008 · Cessna 414A
Cessna 414A · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From C · Boca Raton, FL to C · Ashland, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA82AA008
- 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
- 8 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 414A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 414
- 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
- N2620L
- Operator
- Ashland Properties
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Boca Raton, FLTo C · Ashland, VA
- 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
- Approach · circling (IFR)
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ashland, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RECEIVED 2 WX BRIEFINGS, ONE ON THE EVENING BFR THE FLT, ANOTHER AT 1009 EST, WITHIN 3 HRS OF THE TKOF TIME. IFR CONDITIONS WERE FORCASTED AT THE UNCONTROLLED, DESTINATION ARPT. THE PLT FILED AN IFR FLT PLAN, BUT DID NOT LIST AN ALTERNATE ARPT. THE ACFT DEPARTED BOCA ROTON, FL AT 1257 EST. THE FLT WAS UNEVENTFUL EN ROUTE & ALL COMMUNICATIONS WERE NORMAL. DURING ARRIVAL, THE PLT WAS CLEARED FOR A VOR 3 APCH TO RWY 16. THE MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) FOR THE APCH WAS 800 FT MSL (595 FT AGL) AND THE MIN VIS WAS 1 MI. SVRL WITNESSES AT & NEAR THE ARPT SAW OR HEARD THE ACFT. THEY DESCRIBED THE ACFT AS CROSSING THE ARPT FROM THE WEST SIDE TO THE EAST. THOSE WHO SAW IT DESCRIBED IT TO BE APRX 150 TO 200 FT AGL, IN & OUT OF THE CLDS. REPORTEDLY, THE ACFT THEN CIRCLED & CROSSED THE ARPT AGAIN. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT STRUCK AN 80 FT TREE, THEN IMPACTED THE GND IN A STEEP DESCENT. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FAILURE OF MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRFRAME OR PWRPLNT BFR IMPACT. THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 46 LBS OVR THE MAX GROSS WT LMT DURING IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA82AA008
- Event ID
- 20020917X01905
- Case number
- DCA82AA008
- 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: ef0d2e4344ef5edd79f3d16638faba7080a6921f2df1fa02448272907b2c67c1; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:40:21.893Z.