DEN89LA165 · Henry Vickers HCV-110
Henry Vickers HCV-110 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Mondell Field (ECS) to Mondell Field (ECS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA165
- 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
Henry Vickers HCV-110
- Aircraft type
- Henry Vickers HCV-110
- 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
- N4831N
- Operator
- Vickers, Henry C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mondell Field (ECS), Newcastle, WYTo Mondell Field (ECS)
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Ignition system, magneto › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, poor
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT HAD BEEN AIRBORNE FOR ABOUT ONE HOUR WHEN THE ENG LOST POWER. THE PLT ATTEMPTED A FORCED LANDING AND PICKED AN OPEN AREA. STRONG SURFACE WINDS RESULTED IN AN UNDERSHOOT OF THE SELECTED AREA AND WHEN HE TRIED TO STRETCH THE GLIDE THE ACFT STALLED AND LANDED HARD. THE PLT SAID THE ENG IS FROM A GROUND POWER UNIT AND HAS ONLY ONE MAGNETO. HE SAID THE MAGNETO COIL FAILED.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE TO THE MAGNETO. THE SELECTION OF A POWERPLANT WITH A SINGLE MAGNETO SYSTEM WAS AN IMPROPER CHOICE AND DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE CAUSE. THE PILOT'S MISJUDGEMENT OF THE WIND FOR THE APPROACH TO A FORCED LANDING RESULTED IN AN IMPROPER GROUND CONTACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA165
- Event ID
- 20001213X28805
- Case number
- DEN89LA165
- 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: d8b9707257c6c5b2240a67cbd36a96685057d24727da1294d3c5ffd87aba220c; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:09:11.667Z.