The accident record: the NTSB whole

1988 — 2013 · FOUR REPORTS, AND THE STRUCTURAL NEGATIVES

Coded to Mishawaka: The National Transportation Safety Board's location field for Mishawaka, Indiana returns exactly two events. On 3 July 1988 a Raven S55A balloon, on a short evening flight, landed in an open field in Mishawaka; on landing the gondola turned over and was dragged, one passenger was seriously injured, the pilot was uninjured, and the aircraft was undamaged — the Board's findings reading inadequate weather evaluation, high wind, and an inadequate passenger briefing (CHI88LA158). On 11 May 1997 a Beech Debonair landed hard at Nelund Field: a stall-warning chirp at ten to fifteen feet, a drop, a collapsed nose gear — the pilot uninjured, the airplane substantially damaged, the probable cause an improper flare with a gusty crosswind as a factor (CHI97LA129). The pilot was the field's own owner, Harold W. Nelund, flying into his own strip. The Board's report disagrees with itself about that strip and the disagreement is printed, not smoothed: its narrative calls the runway 1,800 feet of sod, its airport block gives 1,700 by 70 feet and an elevation of 860 feet — against the FAA record's 1,630 by 70 feet of turf at 750 feet, which governs for the field.

At the club's field, coded to Elkhart: Two more reports belong to this build by institution and to Elkhart by the Board's coding, and both are printed. On 21 December 2001 a Cessna 182P on short final to 3C1's runway 21 collided with a pickup truck, then the ground, and nosed over — the pilot seriously injured, the truck driver minor injuries, the airplane substantially damaged (CHI02LA055); a magazine summary that gives both occupants minor injuries is superseded by the Board's record, which governs. On 2 January 2013 a Luscombe 8F bounced its landing on the same runway, veered left, and nosed over in plowed snow — both occupants uninjured, the airplane substantially damaged, the probable cause the pilot's improper flare (CEN13LA127). That is the whole of the federal accident record for Mishawaka and its fields: four reports, one serious injury at Mishawaka itself, no fatality in any of them.

The negatives, at their true weight: No NTSB event is coded to the 1934 Mishawaka Airport — a structural negative, printed as one: the Board's database begins in 1962 and the field closed about 1948, so it predates the record entirely rather than passing through it clean. Sportsman's Airport's 1962–1968 tail does fall inside the database era and returned nothing. No event is coded to the Edison Lakes heliport. One aggregator row is excluded deliberately, on the South Bend build's pattern: a crash-listing site carries an Air Tractor AT-301 at "Osceola" on 15 July 2007 that resolves to no NTSB record anywhere reached — an artifact, the date falling exactly one year after a real 2006 accident en route to 3C1 that itself happened in Michigan and is likewise not counted here.

Sources:

1. National Transportation Safety Board, final reports — CHI88LA158 (3 July 1988, Raven S55A balloon, Mishawaka; published 29 September 1989); CHI97LA129 (11 May 1997, Beech B33-35 Debonair, Nelund Field; published 9 June 1999), its internal runway and elevation conflicts printed in the entry; CHI02LA055 (21 December 2001, Cessna 182P at 3C1); CEN13LA127 (2 January 2013, Luscombe 8F at 3C1; published 24 March 2014) — retrieved via data.ntsb.gov and the NTSB database mirror, November 2026.
2. FAA Airport Master Record for 9II2 — the governing figures for Nelund Field against the NTSB report's internal variants.
3. Excluded items, printed as exclusions: the PlaneCrashMap Air Tractor row of 15 July 2007 (no NTSB record); CHI06LA190 (15 July 2006, South Haven, Michigan — a flight bound for 3C1, an accident in Michigan, not counted).