Air Chaparral - Accidents/incidents

Accidents/incidents

• On 2 March 1981, a Cessna T210N, registration N77FB, en route from Fallon to Austin crashed in foul weather. Both the pilot and the single passenger perished in the accident. As a result of this accident the US Civil Aeronautics Board reviewed Air Chaparral's "commuter carrier fitness determination" in a 16 April 1981 board meeting in Washington, D.C..

• On 28 December 1981 an Air Chaparral cargo flight, a Cessna 402C, registration N2749N, traveling from Spokane, Washington to Lewiston, Idaho, attempted to land at the Pullman, Washington airport during a heavy snowstorm. The flight controller cleared the pilot to land, not being informed that the runway was closed because a snowplow was clearing snow from its surface. In any event the snowplow did not factor into the incident, because the airplane struck a ridge about one-half-mile (0.8 km) north of the airport, killing the pilot, who was the sole occupant. Investigators determined that visibility conditions at the time of the crash were below landing minimums for that airport. The pilot had 30,000 hours of flight time when he died.