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DEN83LA167 · Cessna 188A

16 Jul 1983 · Burlington, CO, United States

Cessna 188A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

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Event

NTSB case
DEN83LA167
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 188A

Aircraft type
Cessna 188
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
N1584M
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
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 137: Agricultural
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
Maneuvering · aerial application
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
Loss of control in flight
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/mush
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

  • Pilot in command › Flare, not possible
  • Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, excessive

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

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT STALLED INTO THE GROUND AFTER A DIVE AND ACCELERATED PULL-UP DURING AERIAL APPLICATION. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS DOING THE STEEP PULL-UPS AND DIVES BECAUSE OF PROXIMITY TO THE CITY OF BURLINGTON CO. HE SAID THE ACFT WAS JUST ABOUT EMPTY OF GAS AND CHEMICAL SPRAY AS HE MADE THE CLEANUP PASS WHEN THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED. HE DOVE FROM ABOUT 300 FT AT A 60-70 DEGREE DIVE TO WITHIN 50 FT OF THE GROUND BEFORE BEGINNING TO FLARE. HE ESTIMATED THE IAS AT 105 KTS WHEN HE STARTED THE FLARE. DURING THE FLARE THE ACFT SHUDDERED. HE STATED THAT DURING THE PULL-UP WING OVER TURN AROUND MANEUVER THE ACFT NEVER SHUDDERED AND THE STALL WARNING DID NOT SOUND. WHEN THE ACFT SHUDDERED DURING THE PULL-OUT OF THE DIVE THE PILOT SAID HE RELEASED BACK PRESSURE FOR A SECOND AND THE ACFT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A 3 POINT ATTITUDE. THE ACFT PANCAKED HARD AND SLID 75 YARDS. THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED ON IMPACT. THE GROUND ELEVATION AT THE ACCIDENT SITE IS ABOUT 4178 FT. THE DENSITY ALT WAS FIGURED TO BE 7500 FT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN83LA167
Event ID
20001214X43712
Case number
DEN83LA167
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: 2ad7e2295ceafb3eddc6d59cafc85757b8a12f05b3ce1c7b64098e392fed233e; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:46:20.173Z.