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Westwind Aviation Flight 58

23 Sept 2000 · Valle, AZ, United States

Cessna 207A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering

From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) to Scottsdale Airport (SDL)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX00FA347
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
0 · 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
Charter & commuter
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 207A

Aircraft type
Cessna 207
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
N9439M
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN), Grand Canyon, AZTo Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
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
Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
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
Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Aircraft performance › Inadequate
  • Ignition system › Improper
  • Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, he was departing about 50 pounds under gross weight. The paved 8,999-foot runway is located at 6,606 feet msl. The winds were down the runway about 20 to 25 knots, with the temperature about 50 degrees, and the density altitude about 8,100 feet msl. About 3/4 down the runway's length the pilot aborted the takeoff. He taxied back to the terminal and off loaded a passenger, who he estimated to be about 300 pounds. He now estimated the airplane to be about 350 pounds below the gross weight limit. The pilot was again cleared for takeoff. He started his takeoff with the mixture full rich, and then gradually leaned the mixture to about 20 gallons per hour. He said the acceleration felt slow, but normal for a loaded airplane. After becoming airborne, about 100 feet agl, the airplane's climb performance seemed to be getting worse, and it was too late to abort. The control tower advised a 15-degree right turn towards lower terrain, which the pilot performed clearing tree tops about 50 feet. He reported that all preflight and in-flight checks were normal. He performed additional in-flight checks of the engine systems, including simultaneous use of the fuel boost pumps, with no increase in performance. About 10 minutes into the flight, the airplane was still 50 to 100 feet above treetops and approaching high-tension power lines without enough altitude to clear them. The pilot started to look for a landing site. Subsequently the airplane collided with trees about 14 miles from the departure point. Examination of the magnetos by the manufacturer revealed numerous discrepancies affecting the optimum performance of the engine.

Probable cause

Improper maintenance and adjustment of the engine magnetos resulting in a loss of optimum performance during a critical takeoff that required peak engine performance.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX00FA347
Event ID
20001212X22000
Case number
LAX00FA347
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: f66b520f66d548d7cf897b96f45eadf3e65a7cca41b189ae831ffcc956d4f5e1; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:24:08.877Z.