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BFO93FA103 · Cessna 180K

1 Jul 1993 · Webster, NH, United States

Cessna 180K · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

From NH to Quebec, CANADA

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Event

NTSB case
BFO93FA103
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
2 · 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 180K

Aircraft type
Cessna 180
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
N2880K
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From NHTo Quebec, CANADA
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
Initial climb
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
Loss of control in flight
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall
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 › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Webster, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF FROM A LAKE, AT ABOUT 40 FEET ABOVE THE LAKE'S SURFACE, THE AIRPLANE STALLED, THEN IMPACTED IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AND NOSED OVER. POST-ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME AND ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY ANOMALIES. THE AIRPLANE'S CARGO WEIGHED ABOUT 400 POUNDS. GROSS WEIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE WAS CALCULATED TO BE ABOUT 3450 POUNDS, WHICH WAS ABOUT 630 POUNDS OVER ITS MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT. ALSO, AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF WATER WAS FOUND IN THE AFT 3 COMPARTMENTS OF THE RIGHT FLOAT.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING/PREPARATION, HIS FAILURE TO ASSURE PROPER WEIGHT AND BALANCE OF THE AIRCRAFT FOR TAKEOFF, AND HIS FAILURE TO OBTAIN AND/OR MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL. A POSSIBLE FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: WATER IN THE RIGHT FLOAT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO93FA103
Event ID
20001211X12778
Case number
BFO93FA103
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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 2b8590e1ea50e6758bb775ca6bd8d7a07fb10d74007dd622a416c8fcb908bd17; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:29:54.408Z.