Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / CEN23LA263

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN23LA263

2023-06-23 Gunnison, Colorado, United States Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3289S

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 182G

Year of manufacture

1964 · 59 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19640916

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A38FAC

Registrant of record

DOUBLE LAZY H LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s improper decision to fly into an area of unsuitable terrain which the airplane was unable to exit, resulting in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent impact with terrain.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that she had been checked out in the accident airplane that morning and this was only her second flight in the same type. She stated that she and three passengers were sightseeing in a canyon that began to narrow. As the flight progressed, she was unable to climb out of the canyon and stalled the airplane. During the stall recovery, the airplane impacted trees and terrain; a postcrash fire ensued and the airplane was destroyed. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operations. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot
  • Personnel issues-Experience/knowledge-Knowledge-Knowledge of geographic area-Pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Aircraft capability-Climb capability-Capability exceeded
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_CEN23LA263.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗