DEN03LA073 · Cessna 175A
Cessna 175A · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From 00V · Colo. Springs, CO to Crawford Airport (99V)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN03LA073
- 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
Cessna 175A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N6884E
- Operator
- Robert L. Buckley, Jr · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 00V · Colo. Springs, COTo Crawford Airport (99V), Crawford, 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Inoperative
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Open
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported on takeoff having a normal acceleration and run. The pilot said, "The airplane uncharacteristically failed to produce additional RPMs once airborne." The pilot determined that he would have to bring the airplane back for landing. The pilot said he initiated a left turn to crosswind and lowered an additional 10 degrees of flaps. The pilot said that it was at this point that he was near minimum controllable airspeed. The airplane started a slow descent. The pilot said he turned the airplane from crosswind to aim it back toward the center of the airport. The pilot said, "As I rolled level I noted the airspeed indicator at 40 miles per hour, which I maintained all the way down to touchdown in a stable descent." The pilot said that at approximately 20 feet above the ground, he pulled back slightly on the yoke in an attempt to flare the airplane. The right wing dropped, and the airplane impacted the ground, bounced, and went inverted. An examination of the airplane's engine showed the number 2 cylinder exhaust valve stuck in the open position. No other anomalies with the airplane were found. The density altitude for the area at the time of the accident was 8,133 feet. The pilot reported the winds on takeoff as 250 degrees at 8 knots. An examination of the engine logbook showed that 9 months earlier, the number 2 cylinder exhaust valve was found stuck open after an aborted takeoff. The valve was unstuck and an engine run and test flight was conducted. From the time of the aborted takeoff incident to the time of the accident, the airplane logged approximately 2 hours total time.
Probable cause
the stuck open exhaust valve on the engine's number 2 cylinder, the pilot's improper preflight planning, and his failure to maintain aircraft control. Factors contributing to the accident were the low altitude flight maneuver performed, the low airspeed, the tailwind, the high density altitude, and the inadvertent stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN03LA073
- Event ID
- 20030428X00583
- Case number
- DEN03LA073
- 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, coordinates. 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: c6c406d682e4ea7b38eeed21a1a95695e746aae22f9aec6376d91a5c18cbc0b0; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:21:24.240Z.