Cessna 180K N63217

Summary

On 9 August 2008 at about 15:07 local time, a Cessna 180K registered N63217, operated by Charles McCall, was involved in an accident near Garden City, Utah, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 August 2008 at 15:07

Classification

Accident

Location

Garden City, Utah, United States

Coordinates

41.9356, -111.3883

Aircraft

Cessna 180K

Registration

N63217

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Charles McCall

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

W Yellowstone → Paris

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA08FA175

2 people died.

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which led to an aerodynamic stall/spin.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot had been on a cross-country trip and was stopping to attend a local festival prior to returning to his home airport. He was performing a low-level flight over his friend's house to signal that he would be landing at a nearby airport. Witnesses reported that the airplane was at 500 feet above ground level, doing banked turns in excess of 45 degrees. The airplane began to climb and then stalled, with the left wing dropping. No preimpact mechanical anomalies were identified during the postaccident examinations. The pilot was based at an airport with an elevation of 472 feet. The calculated density altitude at the accident site was 7,901 feet mean sea level. The high density altitude would have decreased the performance of the airplane and as the pilot was conducting low-altitude maneuvers, leaving little margin for error. Because the pilot primarily operated out of an airport that traditionally has low density altitude conditions, he may not have been fully aware of the performance decrease, especially while manuevering at a low altitude.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.