CHI05FA017 · Cessna 182J
Cessna 182J · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Ardmore Municipal Airport (ADM) to Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05FA017
- 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
- 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 182J
- 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
- N2703F
- Operator
- Moussa R. Pessar · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ardmore Municipal Airport (ADM), Ardmore, OKTo Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF), Springfield, MO
- 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, 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 airplane collided with a tree and terrain while maneuvering on final approach during a night landing. The airplane crossed over the airport at an altitude of approximately 2,800 feet above mean sea level (msl) and was cleared for the visual approach to runway 20. The pilot questioned the location of the airport and requested that air traffic control (ATC) provide vectors to final approach. ATC vectored the airplane to a 7-mile final approach. The airplane was at an altitude of approximately 3,100 feet msl, 7 miles from the airport. Once the airplane turned onto final approach the pilot reported having the airport in sight at which time ATC again cleared the airplane for the visual approach. ATC then informed the pilot he was one mile from the airport and asked if he was "gonna be able to get down from there." Radar data indicates the airplane was at an altitude of approximately 1,800 feet mean sea level (msl) [540 feet above ground level (agl)] as it approached the end of the runway. The pilot stated he wanted to make a circle and that he was cleared to land on runway 020. The controller informed the pilot that he was cleared to runway 20 which was a half mile in front of him. Again the pilot requested to circle or extend the "downwind." The controller informed the pilot that the runway was 7,000 feet long, but that he could make a 360-degree turn if he needed to. The pilot responded that he was going to make a left 360-degree turn. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane over the runway prior to it entering a left descending turn during and impacting the terrain. The airplane impacted a tree about 30 feet above the ground. The airplane continued to travel 594 feet along up sloping terrain prior to coming to rest. Post accident inspection of the airplane and engine failed to reveal any mechanical failure/malfunction which would have resulted in the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain a proper altitude and his failure to maintain obstacle clearance while turning to reverse direction on final approach. A factor associated with the accident was the night lighting conditions which existed at the time of the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05FA017
- Event ID
- 20041102X01742
- Case number
- CHI05FA017
- 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 2004-10-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d0404998c5e241ff1abd8864709556f287e8474bf0cfa12395f101ebe6df9e55; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:15:06.882Z.