WPR10CA279 · Cessna 172H H
Cessna 172H H · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) en route
From Skypark Airport (KBTF) to Skypark Airport (KBTF)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10CA279
- 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 172H H
- 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
- N3948R
- Operator
- Amberdawn Mock
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skypark Airport (KBTF), Bountiful, UTTo Skypark Airport (KBTF), Bountiful, UT
- 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 · climb to cruise
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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 that she was flying into a canyon at 6,100 feet with the intent to climb through it and over the surrounding terrain. During the ascent the airplane started to lose airspeed and altitude. She attempted to turn around, but she felt that the airplane would stall due to an insufficient amount of airspeed and she abandoned the attempt. The pilot initiated a forced landing into trees at the bottom of a ravine and the airplane received substantial damage to the wings, fuselage and empennage. The calculated density altitude for the existing atmospheric conditions was 8,238 feet. The published maximum operating altitude for the airplane is 13,100 feet. The pilot reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine at the time of the accident. The pilot stated the accident could have been prevented by acquiring enough altitude prior to entering the canyon.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from terrain. Contributing to the accident was the high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10CA279
- Event ID
- 20100605X90032
- Case number
- WPR10CA279
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: d3141882fc6008d49bf5b5f3ae4f65a766a9d7942ee958597ab7b0516d75236c; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:21:45.877Z.