DEN85FA075 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85FA075
- 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
- 6 · 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 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N6866K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE), Aspen, 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
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS FLYING HIS WIFE & HER 4 FRIENDS TO ASPEN, CO FOR A SKI VACATION. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT DURING TAKEOFF, THE RGT BAGGAGE DOOR OPENED. THEY OBSERVED THE ACFT TURN LEFT ONTO A DOWNWIND WITH THE LANDING GEAR EXTENDED. EIGHT WITNESSES REPORTED THE ENG(S) WERE PRODUCING POWER OF VARYING DEGREES; 2 STATED THE LEFT ENG STOPPED RUNNING & 2 REPORTED THE RGT ENG HAD A REDUCTION OF POWER OR RPM. IN THE VICINITY OF WHERE THE PLT WOULD HAVE MADE A BASE TURN, THE ACFT ENTERED A LEFT DESCENDING TURN, COLLIDED WITH THE TOPS OF TREES BESIDE A ROAD, IMPACTED IN THE ROADWAY ON AN EASTERLY HEADING, SLID TO A STOP & BURNED. AN EXAM REVEALED THE GEAR WAS DOWN, THE LEFT PROP WAS FEATHERED & THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE RGT BAGGAGE DOOR WAS OPEN. THE THROTTLE QUADRANT WAS FOUND WITH THE LEFT THROTTLE 2/3 FORWARD, THE RGT THROTTLE FULL AFT, THE LEFT PROP CONTROL IN THE FEATHER POSITION, THE RGT PROP CONTROL FULL FORWARD & THE MIXTURES AT ORNEAR THEIR FORWARD POSITIONS. THE FLT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ACFT WERE CONSIDERED NORMAL WITH THE BAGGAGE DOOR OPEN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85FA075
- Event ID
- 20001214X35674
- Case number
- DEN85FA075
- 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: 492c3cfadb6daf08205a558ccd4f133d7a958244d3b6b701e7595f9d3f257de5; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:09:05.265Z.