DEN90LA174 · Piper PA-28R201T
Piper PA-28R201T · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 2V2 to Windy Plains Airport (5CO0)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90LA174
- 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
Piper PA-28R201T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N31838
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2V2To Windy Plains Airport (5CO0), PARKLAND, CO
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Longmont, CO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT REPORTED DURING INITIAL CLIMB, THE ENGINE QUIT. HALF THE RUNWAY REMAINED AND THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING FROM 100 FEET AGL. THE PILOT HAD RETRACTED THE LANDING GEAR, BUT ATTEMPTED TO LOWER IT FOR THE LANDING. THE PLANE TOUCHED DOWN WITH THE GEAR STILL IN TRANSIT. THE PLANE SLID TO THE RIGHT SIDE AND CAME TO REST OFF THE END AND TO THE RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY. THE RIGHT WING SPAR WAS DAMAGED. THE INVESTIGATION SHOWED THAT THE GASCOLATOR AND ENGINE FUEL SYSTEM CONTAINED ONLY TRACES OF FUEL, THE LEFT TANK CONTAINED 12 GALLONS AND THE RIGHT CONTAINED 5 GALLONS OF FUEL. THE LEFT TANK WAS SELECTED FOR TAKEOFF, BUT THE RIGHT WAS SELECTED AFTER THE ENGINE QUIT. A POSTACCIDENT ENGINE RUN WAS NORMAL AND PROVIDED NO EVIDENCE TO EXPLAIN THE APPARENT FUEL INTERRUPTION. FAA TESTS SHOWED THAT WITH 12 GALLONS, THE NORMAL NOSE UP ANGLE FOR TAKEOFF COULD HAVE UNPORTED. THE FUEL SUPPLY. THESE TESTS WERE CONDUCTED UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL STARVATION FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS RESULTING IN A FORCED LANDING WHILE THE LANDING GEAR WAS STILL IN TRANSIT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90LA174
- Event ID
- 20001212X23983
- Case number
- DEN90LA174
- 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: 3709fcbad403a35cde8c2970f8437a6c4dec4cb24d78d655506324fd2f6d3804; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:23:30.907Z.