DEN85FA008 · Cessna 195A
Cessna 195A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Liberal, KS to SANTE FE, NM
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85FA008
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Unknown
Cessna 195A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 195
- 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
- N3086B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Liberal, KSTo SANTE FE, NM
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Descent, premature
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Santa Fe, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE, THE TRANSPONDER WAS INOP & THE PLT LOST RADIO CONTACT WITH ARTCC 2 TIMES. AS HE APCHD THE DESTN (SANTA FE), INSTRUCTIONS WERE RELAYED VIA ANOTHER ACFT. WHEN ASKED WHAT TYPE APCH HE WANTED, THE PLT RESPONDED, 'WELL IF THEY CAN GET ME LOWER, BELOW IT, I'LL CANCEL.' A MESSAGE WAS THEN RELAYED THAT ARTCC COULD NOT CLEAR HIM BELOW HIS ALT OF 13,000'. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE PLT RADIOED HE HAD CROSSED OVER THE VOR & WAS DSCNDG TO 8000'. THE CONTROLLER TRIED 2 TIMES TO CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY, THEN RELAYED A MESSAGE TO SQUAWK 1200 (VFR CODE), THAT RADAR SVC WAS TERMINATED & TO CALLSANTE FE TOWER. THE PLT DID NOT CONTACT THE TOWER NOR LAND AT THE ARPT. ON 10/10/84, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED & THE ACFT WAS FOUND WERE IT HAD CRASHED NEAR THOMPSON PEAK AT APRX THE 9400' LEVEL. THIS LOCATION WAS APRX 15 MI ENE OF THE ARPT &THE VOR. RADAR DATA SHOWED THE DSCNT WAS STARTED APRX 12 MI EAST OF THE VOR, THEN THE ACFT TURNED NORTH TWD THE CRASH SITE. THE ACFT HAD PREV 'RADIO PROBLEMS.' NO LOGBOOK ENTRY FND FOR VOR CHK. PLT LAST LOGGED INTRUMENT TIME ON 4/17/82.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85FA008
- Event ID
- 20001214X41331
- Case number
- DEN85FA008
- 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: 0adbf87e066257e6d5dec8664322603f07b506ddb1bbbd11363204466c658e9c; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:18:43.808Z.