DEN84FA039 · Bellanca 17-31ATC
Bellanca 17-31ATC · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) to Centennial Airport (APA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84FA039
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bellanca 17-31ATC
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N107CB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jackson Hole Airport (JAC), JACKSON HOLETo 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
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inaccurate
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF IN IFR WEATHER. THE PLT FAILED TO FOLLOW ESTABLISHED DEPARTURE PROCEDURES AND IN FACT HE DID NOT EVEN CALL IN THE FACT THAT HE HAD DEPARTED OR HIS DEPARTURE TIME AS INSTRUCTED BY SALT LAKE CENTER. ATTEMPTS BY SALT LAKE CENTER AND IDA FSS TO CONTACT THE ACFT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. FROM TIME OF TAKEOFF UNTIL THE CRASH THERE WAS NO COMMUNICATION FROM THE ACFT. THE ACFT DEPARTED ABOUT 0840 MST AND CRASHED ABOUT 05-15 MINUTES LATER. THE ACFT WAS FOUND 3 MILES NORTH AND 1 MILE WEST OF THE DEPARTURE ARPT ABOUT 5 DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT. THE MINIMUM SAFE ALTITUDE FOR TERRAIN CLEARANCE IN THE AREA OF THE ACCIDENT ON THE ACFT HEADING OF 260 DEGREES IS ABOUT 12000 FT MSL. THEACCIDENT SITE ELEVATION WAS 7740 FT. THE WEATHER WAS CEILING 1000 FT SKY OBSCURED VISIBILITY 2 MILES LIGHT SNOW WIND CALM. THE ACFT IMPACTED IN A LEFT WING LOW NOSE LOW ATTITUDE INTO TALL PINE TREES AND SNOW COVERED GROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84FA039
- Event ID
- 20001214X45032
- Case number
- DEN84FA039
- 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: 4fd28f6360e13c1268d0bebbd38fd31129ea2d059e06586451bc12354b8bfee9; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:48:02.246Z.