CHI82FA365 · Piper PA-28-181
Twin City Aviation Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Albert Lea, MN to Mankato, MN
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI82FA365
- 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
- 2 · 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
Piper PA-28-181
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N82717
- Operator
- Twin City Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albert Lea, MNTo Mankato, MN
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT ABOUT 1530 CDT, THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED MATTOON, IL ON A FLIGHT TO MANKATO, MN. HOWEVER, THE PILOT LANDED AT ALBERT LEA, MN WHERE HE REFUELED AND TOPPED THE TANKS WITH 45.5 GAL OF FUEL. THE AIRCRAFT'S USABLE SUPPLY WAS 48 GAL. WHILE REFUELING, HE REPORTEDLY TOLD THE AIRPORT MANAGER THAT HE THOUGHT HE WAS AT MANKATO WHEN HE WAS LANDING AT ALBERT LEA. ALBERT LEA WAS ABOUT 42 MI FROM MANKATO. THE AIRPORT MANAGER STATED THAT THE PILOT LOOKED TIRED AND THAT HE (THE MANAGER) TRIED TO PRESUADE THE PILOT TO CONTINUE THE TRIP BY AUTOMOBILE. THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED ALBERT LEA AT ABOUT 2050 CDT. A SHORT TIME LATER, THE PILOT CONTACTED MANKATO UNICOM AND WAS PROVIDED LANDING INFORMATION. DURING A NIGHT LANDING, THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A POWER LINE ABOUT 65 FT AGL AND 4327 FT FROM THE RUNWAY, THEN NOSED OVER AND IMPACTED IN AN INVERTED ATTITUDE. THE TWO FRONT SEAT OCCUPANTS WERE FATALLY INJURED. TWO YOUNG CHILDREN IN THE BACK SEATS, BOTH IN CHILD RESTRAINT SEATS, SURVIVED, ONE WITH MINOR INJURIES. RWY VASI LGTS ON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI82FA365
- Event ID
- 20020917X04420
- Case number
- CHI82FA365
- 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 1982-09-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2cedbf55507943d20879cc1bdb41720852de472da17e9c0b70d967da7e331c19; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:45:24.141Z.