Pilot Debrief

CESSNA 180 near Denver, CO — 2021-04-02

Final reportCEN21LA182
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Date
2021-04-02
Location
Denver, CO, USA
Airport
18V
Aircraft
CESSNA 180
Registration
N4802
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0

Probable cause

The pilot’s loss of situational awareness, and his unintended landing on a soft unimproved dirt road, which resulted in a loss of directional control into soft ground and the airplane to subsequently nose over.

NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that he saw, what appeared to be his intended landing runway and set up for landing. During the landing touchdown, the pilot noticed that the airplane was difficult to control due to the soft soil. As the airplane continued the rollout, it drifted about 20 ft off the pilot’s intended direction into softer soil. Just before the airplane came to a stop, the right tire sunk into the soft ground and the airplane nosed over coming to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right-wing strut and vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operations. After the accident, the pilot reported that he had not landed on his intended runway but on an unimproved dirt road about 0.3 miles from the runway that ran parallel to the runway. The pilot reported that he had spent too much time looking for traffic in the landing pattern and lost situational awareness of his position relative to the runway.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • Photos
  • 2 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents2

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