NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CHI96LA231
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
failure of the pilot to attaining the proper touchdown point for landing, and his failure to abort the landing (while there was still sufficient runway remaining). The ditch was a related factor.
Factual narrative
On July 8, 1996, at 1050 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 182P, N52830, registered to Eagle Air, Inc., of Kalamazoo, Michigan, sustained substantial damage during an overrun landing. The airplane was landing on runway 27 (2650' x 50' dry asphalt), near Plainwell, Michigan, where it ran off the end and into a ditch. The private pilot reported minor injuries. The personal 14 CFR Part 91 flight was operating in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan was on file. The flight departed Kalamazoo, Michigan at 1040. The pilot stated he was high on final and reduced the power and lowered the nose, but the airspeed increased. He said his landing point was further down the runway than he had planned, but he thought he could stop the airplane on the runway remaining. He said that when he realized that he could not get the airplane stopped before overrunning the end, it was too late to abort the landing. The airplane overran the end of the runway and impacted a ditch. The pilot stated that he was high on final, and the touchdown was further down the runway than he had planned. He thought he would be able to stop the airplane on the runway, but when he realized, that was not possible, he was too far down the runway to abort the landing. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1996_CHI96LA231.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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