DEN89LA139 · Cessna 180K
Cessna 180K · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) to U07
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA139
- 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 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
- N1846Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE), Eagle, COTo U07
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS LANDING THE TAILWHEEL-EQUIPPED AIRPLANE TO THE NORTH ON A 3500-FOOT, GRAVEL-COVERED, ASPHALT RUNWAY. THE WIND WAS FROM THE WEST AT 5 KNOTS. THE PILOT SAID HE TOUCHED DOWN IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF RUNWAY AND CORRECTED WITH LEFT AILERON FOR 'AN APPARENT LEFT CROSSWIND.' HE LOST DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AND THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. IT OVERTURNED IN A DITCH PARALLEL TO THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT REPORTED NO MECHANICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH THE AIRCRAFT. LATER EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THE LEFT MAIN WHEEL TIRE WAS BLOWN. THE PILOT HAD LOGGED A TOTAL OF 18 HOURS IN THE CESSNA 180K, ALL OF WHICH WAS ACQUIRED IN THE PREVIOUS 30-DAY PERIOD. HE HAD LOGGED AN ADDITIONAL 100 HOURS IN OTHER TAILWHEEL-EQUIPPED AIRPLANES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO COMPENSATE FOR WIND CONDITIONS DURING THE LANDING ROLL. THE CROSSWIND WAS CONSIDERED AS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR. AN UNDERLYING FACTOR TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN PERFORMING CROSSWIND LANDINGS IN THE CESSNA 180.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA139
- Event ID
- 20001213X28555
- Case number
- DEN89LA139
- 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: d013bb9b03030b66390632af9fc88576c5113efb5c0a50ceb7ff3291891bb50b; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:10:51.487Z.