Brown HI-MAX 1700R UNREG

Summary

On 17 September 2005 at about 22:30 local time, a Brown HI-MAX 1700R registered UNREG, operated by Lenord Brown, was involved in an accident near Fort Morgan, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

17 September 2005 at 22:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Fort Morgan, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Fort Morgan Municipal Airport (3V4)

Coordinates

40.3342, -103.8039

Aircraft

Brown HI-MAX 1700R

Registration

UNREG

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Lenord Brown

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Fort Morgan → Fort Morgan

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DEN05LA148

1 person died.

The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a forced landing. Contributing factors were the resultant and inadvertent stall, the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons, and the pilot's lack of familiarity with the airplane.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

A friend of the pilot stated that the pilot had only flown the airplane on two occasions prior to the accident flight. On one of those previous flights, the pilot had broken the landing gear during a hard landing. The accident flight was the first flight since the landing gear had been repaired. The friend said that on another flight, the pilot exhausted his fuel supply and made a forced landing on the airport. He said that when the engine loses power, the airplane becomes nose heavy and has a tendency to dive. He said witnesses told him it sounded as if the airplane's engine was "misfiring" or "sputtering." They said it appeared the pilot was trying to land in a field. The pilot turned and stalled the airplane. Other witnesses told sheriff's deputies they saw the airplane "diving toward the ground" or "diving nearly straight down." The airplane impacted a farm field approximately 200 yards southwest of the airport.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.