ERA23LA240 · Cessna R182
Cessna R182 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA23LA240
- 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
- 0
- 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 R182
- 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
- N182LG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 43 years (built 1980)
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a takeoff attempt from a 1900-ft-long turf runway, the airplane travelled along the runway in a nose-high attitude with the tail dragging in the turf. The airplane lifted off nose high, the wings buffeted, and the airplane drifted left toward trees. A witness described that the engine was operating continuously, and no abnormal engine sounds were heard during the takeoff. The airplane subsequently contacted the trees off the left side of the runway and the wreckage was mostly consumed by a postimpact fire. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions of the airframe or engine. Measurement of the elevator trim actuator corresponded to a full nose-up elevator trim position. Review of a before takeoff checklist from a pilot operating handbook for the make and model airplane revealed instructions to set the elevator trim to the takeoff position before takeoff. It is possible that the pilot used a full nose-up trim position for the previous landing on the short runway and forgot to reset the elevator trim before the accident takeoff. This trim position likely resulted in the airplane’s nose up pitch attitude during the takeoff attempt, the airplane’s tail contacting the ground reducing its performance during the takeoff, and resulted in the pilot losing control of the airplane. Toxicological testing detected cetirizine in postmortem specimens from the pilot. cetirizine is an over-the-counter antihistamine medication commonly used to treat allergy symptoms and that often carries a warning that users may experience drowsiness. The FAA states that pilots should wait 48 hours after using cetirizine before flying to allow time for the drug to be cleared from circulation. Data on sedation and psychomotor impairment from cetirizine are mixed, with some studies finding some sedating and impairing effects. However, the investigation could not determine if the cetirizine had any impairing or sedating effects on the pilot at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to properly set the elevator trim before takeoff, which resulted in a loss of control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA23LA240
- Event ID
- 20230522192206
- Case number
- ERA23LA240
- 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, 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: 408f88211ce0cbdf5908ee8fec6124f8d0a6765f8436706ecc7f50fa15c19f23; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:00:18.646Z.