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DEN87LA033 · Cessna 172N

23 Dec 1986 · NATHROP, CO, United States

Lachute Air Service Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing

From Fremont County Airport (1V6) to Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC)

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Event

NTSB case
DEN87LA033
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 172N

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
CGYDG
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Fremont County Airport (1V6), Canon City, COTo Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC), Gunnison, 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
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
In flight collision with terrain/water
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

  • Passenger › Remedial action, delayed
  • Passenger › Stall, intentional
  • Pilot in command › Became lost/disoriented
  • Pilot in command › Proper assistance, not issued
  • Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE CANADIAN REGISTERED ACFT, WITH A PVT PLT AND INSTRUCTOR RATED PAX AND TWO PAXS ABOARD, TOOK OFF FROM CANON CITY, CO, ENROUTE TO GUNNISON, CO, TO REFUEL. THIS WAS A CROSS-COUNTRY FLT TO ALLOW THE PLT TO BUILD NECESSARY FLT TIME TOWARDS A COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATE. THE ACFT WAS BEING FLOWN IN FORMATION WITH ANOTHER CANADIAN ACFT. THE PLT WAS NAVIGATING VIA PILOTAGE AND NOTICED HE WAS FLYING NORTH INSTEAD OF WEST. THE INSTRUCTOR RATED PAX ABOARD THE OTHER ACFT ADVISED THE PLT TO FLY A MAGNETIC HEADING OF 240 DEGS. THE PLT LOST VISUAL CONTACT WITH THE OTHER ACFT AND A TURN WAS MADE OVER THE WRONG CHECKPOINT. THE ACFT WAS AT 10,800 FT MSL AND CLIMBING SLOWLY WHEN THE PLT SAW HIGHER TERRAIN AHEAD. THE ACFT WAS IN A BLIND CANYON AND THE PLT COULD NOT REVERSE COURSE. THE INSTRUCTOR RATED PAX TOOK CONTROL OF THE ACFT AND PURPOSELY STALLED INTO A SNOW COVERED 12,000 FT MOUNTAIN. THE OTHER ACFT LANDED SAFELY AT GUNNISON.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN87LA033
Event ID
20001213X35349
Case number
DEN87LA033
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: c49e119d5b5c331fe68e5d89cd85dd4215addf7888acabd03fd521e7c02bdd5f; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:47:48.102Z.