CEN12FA199 · Cessna 172S
McAir Aviation Cessna 172S and Cessna 180 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12FA199
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172S
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N10468
- Operator
- McAir Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), Broomfield, COTo Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), Broomfield, CO
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N9325C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Erie Municipal Airport (EIK), Erie, COTo Erie Municipal Airport (EIK), Erie, CO
- 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 · change of cruise level
- Defining eventThe 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Radar track data depicted the accident airplanes on gradually converging flight paths prior to the accident. Immediately before the collision, the Cessna 172 appeared to be on a north-northeast course in level flight at 7,200 feet mean sea level (msl), and the Cessna 180 was in a gradual climb from 6,800 feet msl to 7,000 feet msl on a north course. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, with reported visibilities at 60 miles. Neither pilot was receiving air traffic control advisories at the time of the collision. The radar track associated with the Cessna 180 indicated that after the collision the airplane entered a 270-degree right turn before proceeding to the west. The Cessna 172 continued northbound, as it entered a descent and impacted the ground.
The pilot of the Cessna 180 airplane stated that she heard a loud bang during cruise flight and the airplane immediately pitched up and rolled into right bank. She subsequently determined that elevator control was limited. The pilot attempted to divert to a local airport, but was unable to land on a runway due to the impaired airplane control. She executed a forced landing to an open area adjacent to the airport. A witness reported that the right horizontal stabilizer of the Cessna 180 appeared to be bent down about 90 degrees at mid-span as the airplane approached for the forced landing. The outboard portion of the right horizontal stabilizer of the Cessna 180 airplane was structurally compromised, which resulted in a nearly complete loss of pitch control. The pilot of the Cessna 180 airplane retained marginal pitch control by varying engine power during the remainder of the flight.
A postaccident examination did not reveal any pre-collision failures or malfunctions associated with either airplane. The examination determined that the left aileron/wing of the Cessna 172 likely contacted the right horizontal stabilizer of the Cessna 180 in flight. The outboard portion of the left wing on the Cessna 172 was structurally compromised, rendering the airplane uncontrollable. Regulations required that each person operating an aircraft maintain vigilance so as to "see and avoid other aircraft."
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout by the pilots of both airplanes, which resulted in a mid-air collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12FA199
- Event ID
- 20120325X10800
- Case number
- CEN12FA199
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: ea41c7510ac1f9b48380b9ff18303b9ba404c7022d1906cf2694c048bad207fe; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:07:09.781Z.