Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / CHI92FA201

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI92FA201

1992-07-07 ST PAUL, Minnesota, United States Airport · STP Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PLOTS OF BOTH AIRPLANES, WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID CONFLICTING TRAFFIC, AND FAILURE OF THE RELIEVING CONTROLLERS TO USE THE RADAR DISPLAY TO IDENTIFY AND SEQUENCE AN AIRPLANE ENTERING THE PATTERN. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: AN INADEQUATE BRIEFING BY THE OFF-GOING CONTROLLER, AND INACCURATE POSITION REPORTS BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND OF N5279R.

Factual narrative

A STUDENT & AN INSTRUCTOR (CFI) IN CESSNA 172, N6376F (76F), WERE PRACTICING TOUCH-&-GO LNDGS AS CESSNA 172, N5279R (79R), WAS ARRIVING (TRANSPORTING BLOOD FOR THE RED CROSS). AT 1640 CDT, 79R RPRTD 7 MI SE FOR LNDG. THE TWR CTLR SAW A TARGET IN THAT VCNTY (USING D-BRITE RADAR); HE TOLD 79R TO ENTER A LEFT DWNWND FOR RWY 12 & RPRT 2 MI SE. HE WAS RELIEVED AT 1643 BY A DEVELOPMENTAL CTLR (DC) & A FULL PERFORMANCE CTLR (FPC). HE BRIEFED THEM ON PSNS OF ACFT IN THE PATTERN & TOLD THEM 79R (STILL OUT OF SIGHT) WAS INBOUND FM THE SE, BUT HE DIDN'T SHOW THEM ITS PSN ON RADAR DRG THE BRIEFING. AT 1644:55, 79R MADE A CALL, SAYING THE ACFT WAS 'PRACTICALLY STRAIGHT EAST OF THE AIRPORT.' 79R NEVER RPRTD ON DWNWND, ALTHO TOLD AGAIN TO DO SO. THE CTLRS WERE WORKING SVRL ACFT; THEY NEITHER SIGHTED 79R, NOR USED RADAR TO FIND IT. AT 1647:06, 79R CALLED TURNING BASE FOR RWY 12. AT THAT TIME, 79R WAS TRACKING INSIDE THE FLT PATH OF 76F, AS 76F WAS IN A LEFT TURN TO FINAL APCH FOR RWY 14. ABT 25 SEC LTR, THE 2 CONVERGED, COLLIDED, THEN CRASHED TO THE GND. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_CHI92FA201.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗