SEA08CA044 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Spokane International Airport (KGEG) to Ritzville, WA (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA08CA044
- 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
- N9048T
- Operator
- Rex Minke
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Spokane International Airport (KGEG), Spokane, WATo Ritzville, WA (no airport)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that after an uneventful run-up, he taxied onto the runway and proceeded to takeoff. During takeoff initial climb, the engine lost power and he initiated a 180-degree turn towards the departure runway due to a lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing. During the forced landing, the airplane struck an airport perimeter fence and subsequently nosed into the ground. A post-accident inspection of the airframe and engine revealed no mechanical anomalies. The reason for the loss of engine power was undetermined.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Contributing factors were the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing and the fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA08CA044
- Event ID
- 20071226X01992
- Case number
- SEA08CA044
- 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: 4484dc62e81fbd0e0ac628eab7fe3e6109362bdc745b6c2ad480ac25bb04d5c8; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:14:38.550Z.