WPR13FA095 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Escalante Municipal Airport (1L7) to Escalante Municipal Airport (1L7)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13FA095
- 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
- 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 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N2341N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Escalante Municipal Airport (1L7), Escalante, UTTo Escalante Municipal Airport (1L7), Escalante, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 66 years (built 1947)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness stated that he observed the airplane fly over his position near a state highway at an altitude he considered "low" and that the airplane's engine sounded "loud." Shortly after, he observed the airplane impact power lines that local power company personnel estimated to be about 100 feet above ground level. All major structural components of the airplane were located within close proximity to the collision location. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Witness marks located on the right wing were consistent with damage from impact with the power lines. Local residents reported having witnessed the pilot flying at low altitudes on previous flights. Based on these reports, as well as the accident witness report, it is likely that the pilot was flying at a low altitude during the accident flight and failed to maintain clearance from the power lines.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper decision to maneuver at a low altitude and failure to adequately monitor the environment to maintain clearance from power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13FA095
- Event ID
- 20130119X10225
- Case number
- WPR13FA095
- 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. 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: 3205afd3343a42eaee70080c3567dade60de3af65b6129bac97c64bf3315b64a; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:52:16.903Z.