CHI04CA236 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Vermilion Regional Airport (DNV) to Galt Field (10C)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04CA236
- 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 182
- 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
- N92848
- Operator
- J Rosater
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Vermilion Regional Airport (DNV), Danville, ILTo Galt Field (10C), Wonderlake, IL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system › Exhaustion
- Fuel system, cap › Missing
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
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 sustained substantial damage during a forced landing to a municipal park after a loss of engine power. The pilot reported that he "dipped" the fuel tanks during his preflight and the left tank had 30 gallons and that right tank had 18 gallons. The planned flight time was 58 minutes and the he had 3 hours of fuel on board. He reported that about 58 minutes after departure he was approximately 4 miles north of the Lake in the Hills Airport (3CK) when the engine started to run rough and quit. He applied carburetor heat, switched the fuel selector to "Left" from "Both," put the mixture control to rich, checked the magnetos, and tried to restart the engine without success. He established the best glide speed and turned toward 3CK. He realized that he was not going to be able to make the airport because the airplane was too low. He executed a forced landing to a park that contained playing fields. During landing rollout the airplane impacted a row of pine trees at the east end of the soccer fields. The airplane remained in a normal, upright position. The inspection of the airplane revealed that the left wing fuel cap was missing and the left fuel tank was empty. The top left wing sheet metal, left flap, and left rear horizontal stabilizer had fuel stains trailing from the left fuel tank filler opening. There was no sign of fuel spilled on the ground around the left wing and there was no smell of fuel. A search of the surrounding area was made for the missing left fuel cap, but it was not found. The right wing separated from the fuselage. The right fuel tank cap was still installed. The right fuel tank was empty. There were no fuel stains on the top right wing surface, right flap, or right horizontal stabilizer. There was no sign of fuel spilled on the ground around the right wing and there was no smell of fuel. An inspection of the engine revealed that it exhibited continuity.
Probable cause
Engine failure due to fuel exhaustion as a result of the pilot's failure to secure the left wing fuel cap during preflight. A factor was the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04CA236
- Event ID
- 20040913X01408
- Case number
- CHI04CA236
- 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: 768ea415675b8ba7869b8fb871329518791021ad110af4a125ca5d232344c7e6; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:51:12.815Z.