ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 290536
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2014 |
| Time: | 07:36 LT |
| Type: |  Cessna 175 |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | N7043M |
| MSN: | 55343 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1958 |
| Engine model: | Franklin 6A&6V335 SER |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Moab, Utah -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Durango-La Plata Airport, CO (DRO/KDRO) |
| Brigham City Airport, UT (BMC/KBMC) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The airline transport pilot was conducting a personal cross-country flight in the accident airplane behind another airplane. Radar data showed that the accident airplane was trailing about 2 to 3 miles behind the lead airplane and that both airplanes were proceeding northwest at 9,400 ft mean sea level (msl). The lead pilot reported that the flight route included flying through a mountain pass at an of elevation 10,150 ft msl. The lead airplane exited the pass to the west, and the lead airplane pilot then lost communications with the accident airplane pilot.
The next day, a search and rescue helicopter pilot located the airplane wreckage on the eastern slope of the pass about 1/2 mile below the mountain pass ridge, in a steep wooded valley, at an elevation of 9,804 ft msl. An on-scene examination was conducted; broken tree tops, vertical witness marks on three trunks, and the compact nature of the wreckage footprint were consistent with the airplane impacting terrain in a near-vertical descent after a low-altitude stall/spin. A postaccident fire destroyed a majority of the airplane. No preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions were found that would have precluded normal operation.
The terrain rises 1,100 ft vertically over a distance of 2 miles as the mountain pass is approached in the direction that the accident airplane was traveling. The airplane's maximum climb rate at 10,000 ft was calculated to be about 650 ft per minute at 83 mph, which was not sufficient to climb the airplane over the rising terrain at the point that the pilot started the ascent and this led to his exceedance of the airplane's critical angle-of-attack and the airplane entering a stall/spin.
Probable Cause: The pilot's decision to approach rising mountainous terrain at too low an altitude to clear it and his subsequent attempt to climb, which exceeded the airplane's critical angle-of-attack and resulted in a stall/spin.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB WPR14FA252
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Oct-2022 16:18 | ASN Update Bot | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation