DEN85LA046 · Cessna 401A
Cessna 401A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From North Platte Regional Airport Lee Bird Field (LBF) to Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85LA046
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 401A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 401
- 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
- N365AA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Platte Regional Airport Lee Bird Field (LBF), North Platte, NETo Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical 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
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, intentional
- Pilot in command › Precautionary landing, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 2 HRS AFTER DEPARTURE, AT 13,000 FT, THE RIGHT ENG FUEL FLOW WENT TO ZERO. THE ENG CONTINUED TO OPERATE INDICATING24 INCHES OF MANIFOLD PRESSURE. ALL OTHER INSTRUMENTS WERE NORMAL BUT WHAT LOOKED LIKE A BROWN STAIN DEVELOPED ON TOP OF THE RIGHT WING ALONG THE SPAR CAP NEAR THE TIP TANK. ARTCC WAS ADVISED THAT A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WOULD BE MADE AT RATON AND A RAPID DESCENT WAS BEGUN. ON FINAL THE RIGHT ENG NACELLE AND WING LOCKER TURNED BROWN. AS THE ACFT LANDED FLAMES APPEARED ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FUSELAGE AND SMOKE ENTERED THE CABIN. BOTH ENGS WERE SECURED AND BRAKES APPLIED. THE BRAKES WERE INOPERATIVE THEREFORE, THE PLT STEERED THE ACFT OFF THE RWY INTO A SNOW BANK COLLAPSING THE NOSE GEAR. WITHIN 15 MINS MOST OF THE WRECKAGE WAS CONSUMED BY THE FIRE. IGNITION SOURCE AND FIRE ORIGINATION POINT WERE NOT DETERMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85LA046
- Event ID
- 20001214X41764
- Case number
- DEN85LA046
- 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: ff2f3563a12e69f81fd6aaeaf3fab76b2e8faae2d078451a1d43b6f84499cba2; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:33:36.327Z.