Cessna 182L accident near Coulterville, CA
On February 14, 2000, a Cessna 182L (airplane) was involved in an accident near Coulterville, CA. 2 people died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- February 14, 2000
- Place
- Coulterville, CA
- Aircraft
- Cessna 182L · Airplane
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 37.711°N, 120.120°W
- NTSB ID
- 20001212X20504
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On February 14, 2000, about 0945 hours Pacific standard time, a Cessna 182L, N3324R, was destroyed when it impacted mountainous terrain 3 miles northwest of Coulterville, California. The instrument rated private pilot and one passenger were fatally injured. The personal flight was operated by the pilot under 14 CFR Part 91 and no flight plan was filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at Merced, 33 miles south of the accident location. The airplane departed from the Fresno, California, Yosemite International Airport at 0832, destined for Red Bluff, California. Three residents in the area of the accident, who were present on the morning of the accident, reported that, until noon, the mountains were obscured in clouds with poor visibility, and there were intermittent periods of intense rainfall. A search was initiated for an unknown aircraft on the afternoon of February 14, in response to reception of an emergency locator transmitter broadcast. The aircraft was located at 0650 on February 15, 2000. According to a relative, the pilot and his wife spent the night prior to the accident at their (the relative's) home in Fresno. The pilot and his wife arrived in Fresno Sunday afternoon en route from Long Beach, California, to their second home in Whidbey Island, Washington. It was raining on their arrival at Fresno and they stopped there for the night due to unfavorable weather. The pilot checked the weather from the relative's home on Monday morning before departure. He said he was going to go VFR because he didn't want to go high due to icing, and by
Probable cause
The pilot's attempted flight into known adverse weather after receiving hazardous weather advisories, which resulted in inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions while attempting to maintain VFR conditions on top. The subsequent accumulation of structural icing required an emergency descent into conditions of low cloud ceilings and obscured mountains.
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Browse: California · Cessna aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
