Watertown - Billings

On December 18, 1992 at 04:45 PM, Watertown - Billings experienced a crash involving Cessna 550 Citation II, operated by U.S. Department of Energy, with the event recorded near Billings-Logan Montana.

The flight was categorized as government and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

8 people were known to be on board, 8 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 6, passenger fatalities: 6, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. During descent into Billings, the Citation was sequenced behind a Boeing 757, and both airplanes were eventually cleared for visual approaches. About 1-1/2 mile from the runway the Citation was observed to roll rapidly to the inverted position and descended almost vertically into the ground. According to ATC transcripts and the airplane's cockpit voice recorder, the crew of the Citation had maintained visual awareness of the position of the B757 throughout the approach. At the time of the upset, the vertical separation between airplanes was 600 - 1,000 feet, and the horizontal separation was decreasing below 2.6 miles. One of the Citation captain's last comments was 'almost ran over a seven fifty seven.' Winds were 5 knots. All eight occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N6887Y, MSN 550-0293, year of manufacture 1981.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 45.8092°, -108.5477°.