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DEN90LA193

1990-09-24 · COLORADO SPRING, Colorado, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport COS

N3132L has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BEECH C24R), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE LOSS OF POWER ON ONE ENGINE DUE TO EXCESSIVE FUEL PRESSURE AND THE PILOT'S FEATHERING OF THE WRONG PROPELLER. FACTOR(S) WERE: OPERATION OF AIRCRAFT WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES BY PILOT AND OPERATOR.

Factual narrative

WHILE ON INITIAL CLIMB, THE LEFT ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT MADE A GEAR UP LANDING IN A FIELD, COMING TO REST ONE-HALF MILE FROM THE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE INVESTIGATION SHOWED THAT THE LEFT PROPELLER HAD NOT BEEN FEATHERED, BUT THE RIGHT PROPELLER SHOWED EVIDENCE OF BEING FEATHERED PRIOR TO IMPACT. AN ENGINE RUN OF THE LEFT ENGINE SHOWED THE UNMETERED FUEL PRESSURE WAS SET TOO HIGH AT IDLE, RESULTING IN ROUGH RUNNING AND ENGINE STOPPAGE. EVIDENCE FROM THE AIRCRAFT LEFT ENGINE LOGBOOK INDICATED A HISTORY OF HARD STARTING, MIXTURE RELATED PROBLEMS AND ROUGH RUNNING. THE OPERATOR HAD KNOWLEDGE OF THESE FAULTS. HE TOLD THE PILOT TO START THE LEFT ENGINE WITH THE MIXTURE LEVER RETARTED TO NEAR IDLE CUTOFF. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_DEN90LA193.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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