CHI03FA251 · Cessna 182G
Cessna 182G · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Buena Terra Airpark (33KS) to Atkinson Municipal Airport (PTS)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03FA251
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182G
- 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
- N2064R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Buena Terra Airpark (33KS), Topeka, KSTo Atkinson Municipal Airport (PTS), Pittsburg, KS
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall/mush; 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 › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed on impact with trees and terrain during takeoff. A witness stated, "After the run up, he started his take off roll. ... I noticed he was in trouble because he rotated very late and I could see the entire top of the A/C [aircraft]. He immediately pushed over to get more airspeed. The A/C was mushing along and fell off in a left wing low stall (I think he was stalled)." A passenger heard the stall warning horn go off, the airplane became airborne, and she heard the stall warning horn go off another time. She said that the wing dipped left and then hard right. The airplane seemed low to her. She stated that the engine did not sound right. She looked up and saw trees approaching. She reported that she recalled the plane going down and the airplane was not responding the way the pilot wanted. She said the airplane hit the ground and slid inverted. Local weather was: Wind 060 degrees at 3 knots; visibility 10 statute miles; sky condition clear; temperature 33 degrees C; dew point 14 degrees C; altimeter 30.00 inches of mercury. The calculated local density altitude was 3,124 feet. The airport was a private, uncontrolled airport with two grass runways. The departure runway, 35, was 2,000 feet long and 80 feet wide. Runway 1/19 was 2,500 feet long. The propeller exhibited leading edge nicks and chordwise abrasions. A liquid that smelled like fuel was found in the left wing's fuel tank and in the gascolator. The flaps were found retracted. An on-scene examination revealed flight and engine control continuity. The engine produced a thumb compression at all cylinders when the engine crankshaft was rotated by hand. Both magnetos produced sparks at their spark plug wire ends when the magnetos were rotated by hand. No anomalies were detected. The owner's manual stated, "Using 20 [degrees] wing flaps reduces the ground run and total distance over the obstacle by approximately 20 per cent."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed resulting in a stall during takeoff. Contributing factors were the low altitude he was at during the takeoff, and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03FA251
- Event ID
- 20030814X01338
- Case number
- CHI03FA251
- 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: faaae674e76c058b5c18beb30459f4c7aa55623d8c07b60ff5bbafba61891d6d; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:00:08.007Z.