FTW03FA114 · Cessna 182S
Cessna 182S · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) to Drake Field (FYV)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA114
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 182S
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N97TD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), Wichita, KSTo Drake Field (FYV), Fayetteville, AR
- 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 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Proper altitude, not obtained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 184-hour instrument rated private pilot was executing the LDA/DME RWY 34 instrument approach in actual instrument meteorological conditions when the airplane collided with trees approximately six miles south of the runway. Radar data indicated that the airplane was never stabilized on the approach, and had descended below the published minimum altitudes. The pilot reported that when the airplane crossed over the AWEMO intersection (final approach fix) it was at an altitude of 3,100 feet msl. The pilot felt that was high, so he continued to descend as he proceeded toward the next intersection, TRIUM. The pilot said that the airplane crossed the TRIUM intersection at an altitude of 2,600 feet msl, which he thought was high. He considered increasing the descent rate, but the airplane impacted trees. The radar data also indicated that the airplane had never reached the TRIUM intersection. A review of the LDA/DME RWY 34 approach plate revealed that the minimum crossing altitude at the AWEMO intersection was 4,000 feet msl, and 3,000 feet msl at the TRIUM intersection. Examination of the airplane did not reveal any mechanical deficiencies with the airplane or the engine.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to fly a stabilized, published instrument approach procedure, which resulted in a collision with trees and terrain. Factors were the low clouds and night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA114
- Event ID
- 20030324X00369
- Case number
- FTW03FA114
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-03-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a2ae2e4fbeee75f2d6ece030779778a08943feed9ea54576bd1d9394296ccffd; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:23:10.738Z.