LAX82FVD18 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (ACV) to California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (ACV)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82FVD18
- 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
- N64187
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (ACV), McKinleyville, CATo California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (ACV), McKinleyville, CA
- 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 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of McKinleyville, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK AND SEVERED 3 POWER LINES ABOUT 3 MILES SOUTH OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, IT WAS OBSERVED FLYING AT LOW ALTITUDE IN THE VICINITY. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE FLEW BY A MOBILE HOME PARK TO VERIFY THAT A TRAILER HAD BEEN MOVED. HE ALSO STATED THAT THE ENGINE WAS NOT DEVELOPING FULL POWER WHEN HE DEPARTED THE MOBILE HOME AREA AND THAT HE ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE AND A DOWNDRAFT DURING CLIMB-OUT. HE THEN STRUCK THE LINES; HOWEVER, THE AIRCRAFT HAD SUFFICIENT POWER TO FLY THROUGH AND SEVERE THE 12KV LINES, WHICH WERE ABOUT 1/2 INCH IN DIAMETER, AND THEN CLIMB UP TO A SUFFICIENTLY HIGH ALTITUDE TO FLY BACK TO THE AIRPORT AND LAND. THE ENTIRE ENGINE COWLING WAS TORN LOOSE FROM THE EDGE OF THE FIREWALL ATTACH POINTS; THE PROPELLER TIPS WERE BENT FORWARD ABOUT 3 INCHES; 3 OF THE 4 LEFT WING STRUT ATTACH RIVETS AT THE WING ATTACH POINT WERE SHEARED; A NUMBER OF ELECTRIC ARC BURN SPOTS WERE FOUND ON THE PROPELLER AND LEFT WING SKIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82FVD18
- Event ID
- 20020917X03713
- Case number
- LAX82FVD18
- 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: 29d5b71258d063809bc477d8363a823eee049da3db6d5dc3209abe8c895e7643; retrieved 2026-09-24T02:59:30.057Z.