FTW97FA340 · Cessna 182N
Cessna 182N · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Montrose Regional Airport (MTJ) to Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97FA340
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N9043G
- Operator
- Robert O. Briggs · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montrose Regional Airport (MTJ), COTo Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG), Flagstaff, AZ
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · climb to cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Montrose, CO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The accident aircraft departed an airport located at 5,759 feet msl and was climbing under visual conditions into rising terrain topping at 10,000 feet msl. According to a witness, located approximately 200 yards from the accident site, he observed the aircraft flying low over the trees in a southerly direction. The witness said he looked away and when he looked back the aircraft had impacted into trees at 9,705 feet msl 17.3 miles from the airport. Investigation revealed the flaps were deployed between 5 and 10 degrees. According to performance charts, the maximum rate of climb at 10,000 feet msl was calculated to be 325 feet-per-minute, based on the temperature being 40 degrees above standard. The chart is based on flaps up, an indicated airspeed of 85 mph, and proper leaning of the engine. The aircraft weight was calculated as 2,957.9 pounds and the maximum allowed weight, except for takeoff, was 2,950 pounds.
Probable cause
Inadequate preflight and in-flight planning, preparation and decision making. A related factor was the improper use of flaps.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97FA340
- Event ID
- 20001208X08829
- Case number
- FTW97FA340
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1997-09-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5251e599e8fbd4bfdadb6220439e04629f4487235b16deef02ccb962ad328621; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:49:51.227Z.