DEN83LA168 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From 7V1 · Buena Vista, CO to Centennial Airport (APA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA168
- 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 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N37ER
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 7V1 · Buena Vista, COTo Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, 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
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PLT, HE CROSSED RUBY MOUNTAIN AT 9900 FT MCL. AFTER CROSSING, HE REPORTEDLY ENCOUNTERED LIGHT RAIN & 500 FT/MIN DOWNDRAFTS. HE STATED THAT HE FLEW INTO ROTOR WINDS & HAD DIFFICULTLY KEEPING THE WINGS LEVEL. REPORTEDLY, THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO REVERSE COURSE, SO HE SELECTED THE ONLY AVAILABLE PLACE TO LAND, A SLOPING, ROCKY MEADOW. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE NOSEWHEEL HIT A ROCK & THE ACFT WENT OVER ON ITS TOP. THE PLT STRONGLY EMPHASIZED THAT THE USE OF SHOULDER HARNESSES PREVENTED HIM & THE PASSENGER (HIS WIFE) FROM RECEIVING INJURIES. AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME, ANOTHER PLT WAS GIVING INSTRUCTIONS ON MOUNTAIN FLYING IN A CESSNA 172. HE WAS FLYING APRX 15 MI SOUTH OF THE ACCIDENT SITE. ACCORDING TO HIM, THE AIR WAS VERY UNSTABLE & THERE WERE THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AREA. HE REPORTED THAT HIS CLIMB RATE NEVER EXCEEDED 100 FT/MIN, EXCEPT IN UPDRAFTS ON THE WINDWARD SIDE OF THE RIDGES. THE ELEVATION OF THE CRASH SITE WAS APRX 8200 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA168
- Event ID
- 20001214X43713
- Case number
- DEN83LA168
- 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: 6245ceaa7d6771e9dd58075af4fcb81eabe58d4806a7430c08246a0cb0c2ab6d; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:45:02.247Z.