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DEN89LA194

1989-08-13 · SANTA FE, New Mexico, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport SAF

N3077X has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (STODDARD HAMILTON GLASTAR, built 2003), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

IMPROPER USE OF THE MIXTURE CONTROL BY THE PILOT DURING TAKEOFF WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION. ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN CONTRIBUTED TO THE AIRCRAFT DAMAGE.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT STATED THAT HE LEANED THE MIXTURE PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS ABOUT 9300 FT. AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE SPUTTERED AND THE PILOT INCREASED THE MIXTURE TO FULL RICH. HOWEVER, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE ON ROUGH, DESERT TERRAIN. THE OPERATOR'S MANUAL FOR THIS AIRCRAFT SPECIFIED THAT TAKEOFF SHOULD BE MADE WITH THE MIXTURE SET AT FULL RICH, REGARDLESS OF THE ALTITUDE, SINCE 'THE ENGINE-DRIVEN ALTITUDE COMPENSATING FUEL PUMP WILL AUTOMATICALLY LEAN ENGINE MIXTURE.' Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_DEN89LA194.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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