Springdale Air Service Cessna 402A accident
Cessna 402A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Springdale, AR to Kansas City, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC82FA019
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N4553Q
- Operator
- Springdale Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springdale, ARTo Kansas City, MO
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · IFR final approach
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED 2 WEATHER BRIEFINGS. MOST OF THE FIRST BRIEFING WAS SPENT FINDING AN ALTERNATE. THE FORECAST INCLUDEDIMC WITH LOW CEILINGS, LOW VISIBILITIES WITH LIGHT SNOW, FOG, AND POSSIBLE FREEZING DRIZZLE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS NOT CERTIFICATED FOR FLIGHT IN KNOWN ICING CONDITIONS. DURING ARRIVAL, THE PLANE ENTERED AN OVERCAST AT 3500 FT MSL. TWO MINUTES LATER, THE PILOT REPORTED AN ENCOUNTER WITH FREEZING PRECIPITATION. THE FIRST APPROACH WAS ABANDONED IN THE VICINITY OF THE FAF/OUTER MARKER AFTER THE PILOT FLEW THROUGH THE LOCALIZER COURSE LINE AND WAS ABOUT 1/2 MILE TO THE RIGHT. HE WAS VECTORED FOR ANOTHER ILS APPROACH. WHILE INBOUND ON THE APPROACH, HE WAS INFORMED THAT APPROACH CONTROL HAD RECEIVED A LOW ALTITUDE ALERT. HE WAS REMINDED THAT HIS ALTITUDE SHOULD BE 2600 FT UNTIL REACHING THE FAF; HOWEVER, HE REACHED ONLY 2400 FT. HIS AIRSPEED WAS MUCH HIGHER THAN NORMAL WHILE DESCENDING FROM THE FAF. THE PLANE STRUCK A BUILDING AND BURNED ABOUT 1/3 MILE NORTHEAST OF THE END OF RUNWAY 18.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC82FA019
- Event ID
- 20020917X02467
- Case number
- MKC82FA019
- 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 1982-01-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 91f4f309b6c44faaec7b8bac420240e36ac37052d04ae19324022f93e8d2db14; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:33:28.684Z.