Cessna 195 N4377V

Summary

On 8 July 2000 at about 17:20 local time, a Cessna 195 registered N4377V was involved in an accident near Aspen, Colorado, United States. 4 people were on board and 4 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

8 July 2000 at 17:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Aspen, Colorado, United States

Coordinates

39.2400, -106.7117

Aircraft

Cessna 195

Registration

N4377V

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Aspen → Watkins

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DEN00FA127

4 people died.

the pilot's poor in-flight decision to fly up a valley with rapidly rising terrain, which resulted in the airplane colliding with the terrain due to its climb performance being exceeded. A contributing factors was the high, rapidly rising, mountainous terrain.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot flew the airplane from the departure airport (field elevation of 7,815 feet msl) to a point approximately 3 miles north before turning southeast and flying up a valley. Local pilots stated that the normal procedure for departing the airport was to fly north 8 to 10 nautical miles north before turning into a different valley. The valley where the wreckage was located was surrounded by rapidly rising terrain on each side and terminated at a mountain ridge with elevations up to 12,700 feet msl. The accident site was located at an elevation of 9,860 feet. The wreckage energy path was oriented almost opposite the direction needed to fly up the valley, indicating that the pilot attempted to reverse direction and fly out of the valley. No anomalies were noted with the airframe or engine that would have prevented normal operation of the aircraft. The density altitude at the time of the accident was calculated to be 10,518 feet.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.