DEN03LA008 · Diamond Aircraft Industries DA20-C1
Diamond Aircraft Industries DA20-C1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN) to Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN03LA008
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Diamond Aircraft Industries DA20-C1
- Aircraft type
- Diamond DA20
- 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
- N315CL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN), Farmington, NMTo Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT), Grand Junction, 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
- Approach
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, they departed at 1830 with 18 gallons of fuel in the airplane, on a direct cross-country flight using the airplane's on-board GPS. During the flight, he noticed that he had a 20-knot tail wind. They arrived at their destination at 2000. Prior to the return flight, he checked the fuel using a stick and the fuel gauge. He identified that there was approximately 9.5 gallons of fuel remaining and decided not recheck his fuel burn rate. They departed at 2100. The pilot stated that while approximately 50 nautical miles south of their final destination, he rechecked the fuel burn rate and calculated it to be approximately 6 gallons per hour, but the fuel gauge did not reflect this. The fuel gauge was reading right at the one-quarter mark but should have been over one quarter. "I thought the fuel gauge was malfunctioning, and knew that we could land at nearby airport, but I decided not to." He also stated that it was less then an hour to their home field, and that even at one-quarter tank, it should be enough for a 45-minute reserve. At approximately 13 miles southeast of their home field, he contacted the tower, and was given clearance to land. While on final, the engine began to "sputter." He notified the tower that he was having "engine trouble," and they cleared him to land on any runway. At 7000 feet msl and on final for runway 04, the engine "quit completely." He attempted to hold altitude and restart the engine, but was unable to. Realizing he couldn't make it to the airport, he set up to make a forced landing on an Interstate Highway. He made a right turn to set up for the landing. The airplane struck a set of power lines at a 30-degree angle, and in a 20-degree right turn, knocked down two power poles, impacted a ditch, and came to a stop next to the highway. The pilot noticed the power lines lying across the airplane, he saw sparks, and a fire near the left wing. He unbuckled himself and his passenger and they both climbed out and walked up to the road. The wire strike, ground impact, post impact fire, and subsequent electrical power surge, destroyed the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight and in-flight planning resulting in fuel mismanagement and fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN03LA008
- Event ID
- 20021030X05408
- Case number
- DEN03LA008
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-10-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 41e733255bf3aa8ebc1461daee2c7646d718b6ee24ed211af858a05613107f4f; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:35:39.779Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states "The wire strike, ground impact, post impact fire, and subsequent electrical power surge, destroyed the airplane."