5 Jan 2023: CESSNA 182M — NEVERLAND LLC

5 Jan 2023: CESSNA 182M (N71494) — NEVERLAND LLC

No fatalities • Council Bluffs, IA, United States

Probable cause

The partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On January 5, 2023, about 1120 central standard time, a Cessna 182M airplane, N71494, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near, Council Bluffs, Iowa. The pilot and passenger were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.  According to the pilot, he was flying to Council Bluffs Municipal Airport (CBF) to discuss having avionics work performed on the airplane. There was another airplane on a practice VOR-A instrument approach to CBF and the pilot recognized there was going to be a conflict, so he elected to perform a 360° turn to allow for increased spacing. At this time, he had the airplane configured with 10° flap, with the manifold pressure at 13 inches of mercury, and carburetor heat on. As the airplane entered the turn, he increased power to 17 inches of mercury and held his altitude at 1,900 ft msl. As the airplane completed about half of the 360° turn, he added power to maintain altitude and there was no response from the engine. The airplane was about 500 ft above ground level and the pilot stated that he did not have time to restart the engine. He said that he focused on locating a suitable landing area and controlling the airplane. The pilot stated that he did not turn off the carburetor heat during the turn or after the engine stopped producing power. There was about 38 gallons of fuel on-board the airplane and the fuel selector was on BOTH. The pilot executed a forced landing to a harvested soybean field. During the landing, the airplane struck a terrace in the field, which damaged the forward fuselage. After the accident a test run of the engine was conducted. The engine started normally and idled smoothly. Once warmed up, the engine was advanced to 1,500 rpm and the engine continued to run smoothly. A magneto check was performed indicating about 75 rpm drop on each magneto. The carburetor heat was activated and indicated a drop in rpm when applied. The engine rpm was not advanced above 1,500 rpm due to concerns about the bent propeller. The weather conditions at the time of the accident included a temperature of -1° C, and dewpoint of -7° C. These were in a range for potential carburetor icing at glide and cruise power.

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 330/12kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.