DEN83LA172 · Cessna T188C
Cessna T188C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA172
- 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 T188C
- 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
- N2834J
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Load jettison, performed
- Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT SETTLED INTO TREES AFTER THE ENGINE LOST POWER DURING A SWATH RUN. THE FLT HAD BEEN IN PROGRESS FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES. THE PLT STARTED THE 4TH RUN AND THE ACFT STARTED TO SETTLE. THE PLT DUMPED THE LOAD BUT DID NOT TOUCH THE THROTTLE OR MIXTURE. HE HAD SET THE THROTTLE AND MIXTURE FOR THE OPERATION AND TIGHTENED THE FRICTION ADJUSTMENT. THE MIXTURE HAD BEEN LEANED TO PEAK TEMPERATURE AND THEN ENRICHED SO THE CYL HEAD TEMP WAS PEAK TEMP MINUS 125 DEGREES. THE MANIFOLD PRESSURE WAS 32 INCHES AND THE PROP SET AT 2400 RPM THE PILOT WAS ASKED ABOUT HIS USE OR POWER AND MIXTURE AND HE SAID HE DID NOT MOVE OR ADJUST THEM FROM THE TIME HE SET THEM AFTER INITIAL LEVELOFF UNTIL GROUND IMPACT. HE SAIDTHAT AFTER THE ACCIDENT THESE CONTROLS WERE IN A NORMAL FLT POSITION. THE PILOT WAS WEARING A HELMET AND SAID IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE TO STOP AND HIM NOT BE ABLE TO HEAR IT. FROM THE CONDITION OF THE PROPELLER IT WAS DETERMINEDTHAT THE ENGINE WAS NOT PRODUCING POWER AT IMPACT. DURING INSPECTION, NOTHING WAS FOUND WRONG WITH THE POWERPLANT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA172
- Event ID
- 20001214X43716
- Case number
- DEN83LA172
- 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: 1da2873ee5aee9f09a1a6c65bddb45007545329a28cb1901583c5b8b637a2e49; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:43:29.573Z.