CEN22FA113 · Cessna 182T
Cessna 182T · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Newark Heath Airport (VTA) to Zanesville Municipal Airport (ZZV)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN22FA113
- 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
- 1 · 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 182T
- 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
- N716MC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Heath Airport (VTA), Newark, OHTo Zanesville Municipal Airport (ZZV), Zanesville, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2005)
- 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
- 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 › Psychological
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 was completing a local flight to three nearby airports and was returning to the originating airport. According to witnesses, after a hard touch-and-go landing, the airplane flew east at low altitude with the flaps still extended. The recorded flight track data indicated that, after the landing, the airplane climbed to about 500 ft above ground level (agl), then descended to about 84 ft agl. A doorbell camera video about one nautical mile (nm) from the accident site showed the airplane flying at a low altitude (about 158 ft agl according to the flight track data) with the wings relatively level. Another witness near the accident site observed the airplane about level with a nearby flagpole at the top of a hill (about 50 ft agl). The airplane then made a gradual descent toward the ground. The airplane impacted a wooded area in a nose-low attitude. The 230-yard debris path comprised airplane components and tree branches. Many of the tree branches exhibited diagonal cuts and witness marks consistent with the engine producing power as the airplane descended through the trees. The airplane impacted the ground and continued across a road, where it collided with a metal guardrail before it descended an embankment and came to rest. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failure that would have precluded normal operation. The wing flaps were found retracted at the accident site. Four of the pilot’s flight instructors provided statements about his training history, piloting skills, and other concerns. Their statements were consistent in indicating that the pilot was easily distracted from the task of flying the airplane and tended to drift off course and altitude. The instructors indicated that the pilot was usually “behind the airplane” and had issues with basic airplane control. Based on the pilot’s training history and the accident circumstances, it is likely that the pilot was distracted and did not maintain a safe altitude, which resulted in an inadvertent collision with trees and terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain altitude after takeoff, which resulted in collision with trees and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN22FA113
- Event ID
- 20220201104586
- Case number
- CEN22FA113
- 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, cause areas. 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: 42f5efec115a94c3cc07a2c91bf498bd84952c34f312b2071f7499b211bdf145; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:40:41.862Z.