ERA14FA372 · Cessna 182F
Cessna 182F · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) during initial climb
From Heber Airpark (K30) to Heber Airpark (K30)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14FA372
- 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 182F
- 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
- N1DZ
- Operator
- Saratoga Skydive
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Heber Airpark (K30), Gansevoort, NYTo Heber Airpark (K30), Gansevoort, NY
- Aircraft age
- About 51 years (built 1963)
- 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
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The banner tow airplane departed, circled, and returned to the airport for the banner pickup. The operator said he was using a handheld radio and was prepared to provide flightpath adjustments to the pilot for the banner pickup, but the approach was "perfect" and the pickup was successful. He announced over the radio that the banner was captured and "looked good," but the airplane then climbed at a much shallower angle than anticipated and drifted left of the runway heading. The airplane subsequently collided with a treetop, rolled inverted, and impacted the ground in a nose-down attitude. The owner of the property where the airplane came to rest was in her yard facing the runway when her attention was drawn to the sound of the airplane as it approached; the engine sounded normal and was smooth and continuous until impact. She stated that the airplane was in a level attitude when it struck the treetop, rolled inverted, and struck the ground nose first.
Detailed examinations of the airframe and powerplant revealed no preimpact mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The throttle and mixture controls were in the full-forward position, the propeller control was three-fourths forward, and the carburetor heat control was in the "on" position. Assuming these as-found positions were the same at takeoff, the engine and propeller would have provided less-than-full power and thrust.
A review of the pilot's logbook revealed he had accrued 333.1 total hours of flight experience, of which 26 hours were in the accident airplane make and model. In the 30 days before the accident, the pilot had had flown 1.8 hours, none of which was in the accident airplane make and model.
According to FAA Advisory Circular AC-61-23C, Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge: "The effect of torque increases in direct proportion to engine power, airspeed, and airplane attitude…. During takeoffs and climbs, when the effect of torque is most pronounced, the pilot must apply sufficient right rudder pressure to counteract the left-turning tendency and maintain a straight takeoff path." It is likely that the pilot did not apply enough right rudder to counteract the left-turning tendency of the airplane during climb.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during initial climb following a banner pick-up, resulting in collision with a tree.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14FA372
- Event ID
- 20140802X00529
- Case number
- ERA14FA372
- 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. 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: f1e95f05f17975399b34208acf145413eda23a3b6d87b362edd664e3fd3521cf; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:23:03.246Z.