Skip to content

DEN89LA080

1989-02-24 · COLORADO SPRING, Colorado, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport COS

N94EC has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BELL 206B), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF FUEL LINES WHICH WERE PINCHED OFF CAUSING FUEL STARVATION WHEN THE GEAR WAS RETRACTED. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WERE THE TERRAIN FEATURES INCLUDING LOOSE GRAVEL SHORT OF THE RUNWAY.

Factual narrative

THE COMMERCIAL PLT WAS PERFORMING AN INITIAL FLIGHT ON HIS SINGLE PLACE HOMEBUILT ACFT. DURING INITIAL CLIMB, AT 400 FT AGL, THE GEAR AND FLAPS WERE RETRACTED. 10 SECONDS LATER THE ENGINE SEEMED TO LOSE POWER AND THE PLT SWITCHED FUEL TANKS. THE POWER RESUMED AND 20 SECONDS LATER THE PLT SAID THE ENGINE STOPPED. THE PLT MADE A 180 DEG TURN AND ATTEMPTED TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT. THE PLANE UNDERSHOT AND LANDED 100 FEET SHORT OF THE RWY. THE PLT REPORTED THE LANDING GEAR PINCHED THE FLEXIBLE FUEL LINES WHEN RETRACTED. AN FAA INSPECTOR CONCURRED AFTER A POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION. 5 WEEKS LATER THE PLT WROTE A LETTER STATING THAT HE FELT THAT WATER IN THE AUTO FUEL CAUSED THE REPORTED ENGINE STOPPAGE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_DEN89LA080.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, fuel starvation). All research papers