DEN90LA075 · Cessna 172
Helena Aircraft Cessna 172 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Helena Regional Airport (HLN) to Helena Regional Airport (HLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90LA075
- 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
- 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 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N61918
- Operator
- Helena Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, MTTo Helena Regional Airport (HLN)
- 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 · 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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, climb capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT FLEW LOW AND SLOW UP A STEEP CANYON. THE PILOT SAID THE FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED A STRONG DOWNDRIFT AND COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE WITH FULL POWER APPLIED. THE PILOT SAID THE CANYON WALLS CLIMBED STEEPLY AND NARROWED RAPIDLY, PREVENTING HIM FROM TURNING BACK OUT OF THE CANYON. THE PLANE NOSED DOWN INTO THE TREES, WEDGED AGAINST A TREE TRUNK, AND CAME TO REST 8 FEET OFF THE GROUND IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. THE PILOT SAID THE RIGHT WING, FUSELAGE AND THE PROPELLER WERE BENT. THE PILOT SAID HE SHOULD HAVE SELECTED A HIGHER ALTITUDE AND NOT FLOWN UP THE CANYON.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DECISION TO ATTEMPT FLIGHT IN TERRAIN AND CONDITIONS WHICH EXCEEDED THE PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES OF THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90LA075
- Event ID
- 20001212X22702
- Case number
- DEN90LA075
- 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: 2ef9f39ba7da5df3e63071a0add5cafb1e6211d7b4a84bd2897c7689d467d52d; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:39:45.805Z.