DEN86LA251 · Cessna 172K
Custom Design Homes Cessna 172K · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW) to 48V · Erie, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN86LA251
- 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 172K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N79910
- Operator
- Custom Design Homes
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW), Winslow, AZTo 48V · Erie, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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 › Airspeed(vref), below
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, below
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT DEPARTED WINSLOW, AZ, AND WAS EN ROUTE TO ERIE, CO, WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. THE PLT SAID HE DECIDED TO DIVERT TO MONTE VISTA TO 'TAKE A BREAK' AND VISIT WITH HIS PARENTS WHO LIVED NEARBY. THE PLT SAID THE WINDS WERE LIGHT AND VARIABLE WITH SOME LIGHT TURBULENCE. THE PLT SAID THAT AS HE APPROACHED RWY 34 (2100 FT X 50 FT, DIRT), HE ENCOUNTERED A HIGH SINK RATE AND THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN SHORT OF THE RUNWAY EDGE. THE MAIN LANDING GEAR STRUCK THE RWY LIP, RESULTING IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE LANDING GEAR BULKHEAD AND FUSELAGE SKIN. THE PLT WAS ABLE TO TAXI THE ACFT TO THE RAMP. ANOTHER RWY (O1-19/6000 FT X 50 FT, ASPHALT) WAS AVAILABLE FOR LANDINGS. THE PLT'S LAST BIENNIAL FLIGHT REVIEW WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN AUGUST, 1984.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN86LA251
- Event ID
- 20001213X34770
- Case number
- DEN86LA251
- 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: 627be1784b6eabcf1675d19828d2d3554811ce32753f2388b2c9b7bf0288b086; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:01:27.372Z.