DEN82FA017 · Cessna 210N
Cessna 210N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From Riverton, WY to Wahpeton, ND
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN82FA017
- 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
- 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 210N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N6558A
- Operator
- Robert H. Peterson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Riverton, WYTo Wahpeton, ND
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Riverton, WY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT IMPACTED A HILL IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKING OFF. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED 8,000 FT BEYOND THE DEPARTURE END OF RWY 28 & 1,800 FT LEFT OF THE RWY CENTERLINE EXTENDED. THE ACCIDENT SITE WAS APPROXIMATELY 55 FT ABOVE THE AIRPORT ELEVATION. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE ACFT MANEUVERING AT LOW ALTITUDE DURING A SNOW STORM. THE FLT HAD ORIGINALLY DEPARTED JACKSON,WY EARLIER IN THE DAY, BUT DIVERTED TO RIVERTON DUE TO AN OIL LEAK CAUSED BY THE OIL CAP NOT BEING IN PLACE. THE FLT REMAINED IN RIVERTON APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS WHILE THE ACFT & ENG WAS BEING CLEANED. PRIOR TO DEPARTING JACKSON WITNESSES STATED THE PLT WAS "SOMEWHAT RUSHED & ANXIOUS TO DEPART JACKSON" & "THE MAN HAD A BAD CASE OF WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL GET-HOME-ITIS, & HE WAS GOING WHETHER IT WAS VFR OR IFR." THE ACFT WAS APPROXIMATELY 253 LBS OVER MAX GROSS WEIGHT.BOTH INBOARD CLOTH SEAT BELTS SEPARATED AT THE JUNCTURE WHERE THEY PASS THROUGH THE METAL GUIDES LOCATED ON THE SIDES OF EACH SEAT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN82FA017
- Event ID
- 20020917X01965
- Case number
- DEN82FA017
- 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 1982-01-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1d90cf62e9ede74f2a0265dcd898bcbf9fd595717e4f8e53c2ade4169fd20623; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:39:45.278Z.