CEN19LA006 · Cessna 120
Cessna 120 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) on approach
From Brighton Van-Aire Estates Airport (CO12) to Platte Valley Airpark (18V)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19LA006
- 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 120
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 120
- 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
- N1881N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brighton Van-Aire Estates Airport (CO12), Brighton, COTo Platte Valley Airpark (18V), Hudson, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 72 years (built 1946)
- 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 · VFR go-around
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
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 was attempting to land with quartering tailwind. He stated that he noticed a strong crosswind and decided to go around. During the go-around, the pilot added engine power; however, the engine did not develop full power. The engine began to sputter and surge as the airplane continued to climb but did not regain power, so the pilot performed a forced landing to a field. The airplane nosed over and sustained substantial damage.
A postaccident engine test run was performed. The engine started without hesitation, but damage to the engine and propeller prevented testing the maximum power setting. Although the engine operation during the go-around is similar to that which would be experienced if carburetor ice had accumulated during the approach, the weather conditions at the time were just outside those at which ice would accumulate. Therefore, the reason for the partial loss of engine could not be determined.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19LA006
- Event ID
- 20181015X93641
- Case number
- CEN19LA006
- 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: 551f6f6a332c224745553c5af41b22585878a5db87f8b7fb449b2bcb19a36b7f; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:21:00.415Z.