CHI03LA122 · Cessna 182S
University of North Dakota Cessna 182S · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Grand Forks International Airport (GFK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03LA122
- 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
- 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
- Visual 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
- N182ND
- Operator
- University of North Dakota
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Forks International Airport (GFK), Grand Forks, NDTo not recorded
- 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
- Taxi
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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(cfi) › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft was substantially damaged when it collided with the shore and a tree during a practice step taxi. The instructional flight was conducted for training in preparation for a single engine sea airplane rating. The dual student held a private pilot certificate with a single engine land rating. The flight instructor stated that the dual student initiated a step taxi across the lake. The intention was for the student to enter a step turn as they approached the opposite shore line. The instructor reported that the dual student initiated the turn with aileron input only, no rudder input. The instructor reported that he directed the student three times to apply rudder input for the turn. After the third request, the instructor stated he took control of the aircraft. The instructor recalled thinking the aircraft would not be able to complete the turn prior to the shore and increasing the rate of turn would risk capsizing the aircraft. He stated that he chopped the power and applied right rudder in an attempt to impact perpendicular to the shoreline. This was unsuccessful and the aircraft hit the shore at an angle. The right wing caught a tree which impacted 2 to 3 feet inboard of the tip. The instructor stated that there were no problems with the aircraft or engine prior to the accident.
Probable cause
Failure by the flight instructor to maintain clearance to the tree. Contributing factors were the delayed remedial action by the flight instructor and the tree.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03LA122
- Event ID
- 20030514X00660
- Case number
- CHI03LA122
- 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, coordinates. 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: 60e55af26cbeeaa538a96539a5c72d1babfaa191cd8f9701ff7e7ee183d5a16c; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:19:25.599Z.