DEN87FA048 · Cessna 340A
Cessna 340A · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN) to Johnson County Executive Airport (OJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN87FA048
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N6320X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN), Farmington, NMTo Johnson County Executive Airport (OJC), Olathe, KS
- 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT AND HIS WIFE WERE EN ROUTE FROM PALM SPRINGS, CA, TO OLATHE, KS, AND HAD STOPPED FOR FUEL AT FARMINGTON, NM. AFTER DEPARTURE, THE ACFT WAS EVENTUALLY CLEARED TO FL 210. AT 1934 THE PLT GAVE DENVER ARTCC THE FOLLOWING PIREP: 'THERE'S BEEN SOME SNOW BUT I'VE BEEN MOSTLY IN AND OUT OF THE TOPS. LOOKS LIKE I GOT CLEAR SKIES ABOVE ME MOST OF THE TIME...AND IT IS MODERATELY ROUGH FROM TIME TO TIME.' AT 2045 KANSAS CITY ARTCC ADVISED THE PLT HE WAS AT FL 213. THE PLT ACKNOWLEDGED HE HAD DRIFTED OFF ALT AND WAS CORRECTING AND WAS HEADING 060 DEG. AT 2047 THE CONTROLLER ADVISED THE PLT HE WAS AT FL 203. THE PLT REPLIED, 'WE'VE HAD A GYRO FAILURE.' AT 2049 RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. THE ACFT IMPACTED AN OPEN FIELD IN A NEAR VERTICAL ATTITUDE. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF AIRFRAME, ENG, PROP, OR FLT CONTROL FAILURE. ONLY ONE VACUUM PUMP WAS RECOVERED. THE INSTRUMENT PANEL AND AUTOPLT SYSTEM WERE DESTROYED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN87FA048
- Event ID
- 20001213X30065
- Case number
- DEN87FA048
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-02-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5f93bf55cf5a397d4dd89fec4f9f0c9c133717ede8b8e44da0e9f3750a98343e; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:14:35.244Z.