MKC83FA045 · Piper PA-31-350
American Central Airlines Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From C · Des Moines, IA to C · Dubuque, IA
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC83FA045
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N4091U
- Operator
- American Central Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Des Moines, IATo C · Dubuque, IA
- 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 · 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, below
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT 2015 THE FLT CONTACTED ARTCC & REQUESTED DUBUQUE WX. THEY WERE ADVISED THAT DUBUQUE WAS 500 FT INDEFINITE CEILING, SKY OBSCURED, VISIBILITY 1/2 MI FOG & THEY WOULD BE VECTORED FOR A BACK COURSE RWY 13 APCH. THE FLT THEN REQUESTED THE FRONT COURSE APCH TO RWY 31 & THE CONTROLLER ADVISED THE FLT THAT IT WOULD BE VECTORED TO THE ILS FRONT COURSE APPROACH TO RWY 31. APPROXIMATELY 40 SECS LATER THE FLT ADVISED THE CONTROLLER THAT IT WOULD TAKE THE BACK COURSE APCH TO RWY 13.THE LANDING MINIMA FOR A STRAIGHT-IN ILS RWY 31 IS 1/2 MILE VISIBILITY & FOR A STRAIGHT-IN LOC/DME BACK COURSE APCH TO RWY 13 3/4 MILE VISIBILITY. THE ACFT'S WRECKAGE WAS FOUND IN A VALLEY ABOUT 3/4 MILE SHORT OF RWY 13 & APPROXIMATELY 100 FT BELOW THE RWY ELEVATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC83FA045
- Event ID
- 20020917X04982
- Case number
- MKC83FA045
- 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 1982-12-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9732e7f14ec782f351b0d48926042453264f317c579e4faa0037b66e1d6b7933; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:20:37.309Z.