DEN90DTE01 · Lanier THORP T-18
Lanier THORP T-18 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Hildebrandt Airport (CO22) to Hildebrandt Airport (CO22)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90DTE01
- 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
- 1 · 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
Lanier THORP T-18
- Aircraft type
- Lanier THORP T-18
- 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
- N18FL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hildebrandt Airport (CO22)To Hildebrandt Airport (CO22)
- 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
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Ignition system, spark plug › Fouled
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS SAW THE PLT PREFLIGHT THE ACFT. AFTER HE TOOK OFF, THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP DESCENT & CRASHED A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE END OF THE RWY. AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THAT ALL SPARK PLUGS WERE CARBON FOULED. THE HOME BUILT ACFT HAD A TOTAL OF 40 HRS FLT TIME. THE ENG HAD A TOTAL TIME OF 42 HRS TSMO. THE OWNER/PLT HAD CHANGED THE CARBURETOR & SPARK PLUGS AFTER THE ACFT HAD FLOWN 6 HRS & THE ACFT HAD FLOWN 13 HRS SINCE THE LAST INSPN. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER WITH CARBON FOULING OF THE SPARK PLUGS, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90DTE01
- Event ID
- 20001213X29772
- Case number
- DEN90DTE01
- 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: 24ee9a634b0078025f778a75fdf84ebb97a1ebcd4b509064515d5d0c5dd7d5b9; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:04:26.345Z.