DEN83FA091 · Cessna 182H
Cessna 182H · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to 1V4 · Fort Collins, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83FA091
- 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 182H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N2971Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 1V4 · Fort Collins, 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Fuel system, cap › Leak
- Fuel system, tank › Improper
- Pilot in command › Aircraft service, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A POWERLINE AND CRASHED AFTER THE ENGINE LOST POWER ON TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES THE ACFT MADE A NORMAL TAKEOFF BUT DURING CLIMBOUT THE ENGINE BACKFIRED AND DARK SMOKE CAME OUT. THE ACFT TURNED LEFT THEN STEEPLY RIGHT BEFORE HITTING THE POWER LINE. THIS ACFT WAS FLOWN 3 TIMES IN 1982 AND TWICE PRIOR TO THE DAY OF THE ACC IN 1983. THE LAST TIME THE ACFT WAS REFUELED WAS IN SEPT, 1982. THE ACFT WAS PARKED OUTDOORS. THE GAS CAP IN THE WING SHOWED AREAS OF RUST AND CORROSION PREVENTING A TIGHT SEAL. MOISTURE COULD LEAK INTO THE FUEL TANK FROM RAIN AND MELTINGSNOW. ON 4/11/83 THE LEFT WING FUEL TANK WAS EXAMINED BY CUTTING INTO IT. THE BLADDER WAS SEVERELY WRINKLED ON THE BOTTOM. THE WRINKLING PRODUCED POCKETS LARGE ENOUGH TO TRAP ABOUT 1 GALLON OF WATER. THIS WATER WOULD NOT REACH THE DRAIN SUMP WITH THE ACFT IN A LEVEL PARKED POSITION. THE NTSB HAS MADE RECOMMENDATIONS TO FAA CONCERNING WATER IN FUEL AND EVALUATION OF BLADDER TYPE FUEL TANKS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83FA091
- Event ID
- 20001214X42652
- Case number
- DEN83FA091
- 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: afd19f29b4c725f516de8b4a400ccbf2c0f00299b7b47e9e23de54cc3526fc16; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:58:46.520Z.