Cessna 172C N1407Y

Summary

On 25 January 2006 at about 20:35 local time, a Cessna 172C registered N1407Y was involved in an accident near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 January 2006 at 20:35

Classification

Accident

Location

Pagosa Springs, Colorado, United States

Coordinates

37.2396, -107.0300

Aircraft

Cessna 172C

Registration

N1407Y

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Ferry

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Las Vegas → Pagosa Springs

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

IMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DEN06LA036

Nobody was injured.

the pilot initiating flight into known adverse weather, and his delay in not taking remedial action sooner by not making a precautionary landing. Contributing factors include the pilot's failure to obtain preflight and in-flight weather briefings, his continuing VFR flight into IMC, snow-covered terrain, and trees.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

Prior to departure, the pilot discussed the weather with a friend who was 65 miles south of the pilot's intended destination. He told the pilot that the weather was clear to the north. The pilot took off and followed a highway. Poor weather conditions prevented him from landing at his original destination, so he turned around and landed at a privately-owned airport that had no service facilities. Shortly thereafter, the pilot took off again and flew north towards his destination. A nearby New Mexico State trooper on patrol observed a single-engine, high-wing airplane, white in color, pass overhead "not more than 20 feet off the ground." As the pilot got closer to his destination, the "weather got bad." He didn't have enough fuel to divert, so he elected to "fly to area of VFR minimums." Then, the "weather in front of us was below class G minimums," so the pilot decided to make a precautionary landing on a snow-covered road. The road came to a "T" and the airplane slid off the end. The left wing and propeller struck the ground and the right wing struck a tree. The right wing had leading edge compression damage outboard of the root, and the left wing leading edge was crushed near the wing tip fairing. Both propeller blades were bent. The pilot said he "should have picked a spot to do a precautionary landing sooner before the weather got bad. Second, I should have called flight service to get a weather briefing, not a friend."

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.