- Date
- January 20, 1989, 09:25 local (16:25 UTC)
- Place
- Buena Vista, CO
- Injuries
- 5 minor, 24 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N73160Convair 580
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report January 22, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890120001309A
- Case key
- 17577
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Inadvertent deactivation of fuel to the left engine as the pilot was making a precautionary shutdown of the right engine, and his failure to follow the emergency checklist procedure. Related factors were: low gearbox oil pressure (at flight altitude), and uneven terrain that was encountered during the emergency landing.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
Drg flt, crew shtdn rgt eng when warning lgt for gearbox oil pres illuminated & pres was noted blo min lmt of 130 PSI. Shortly after securing rgt eng, l eng lost pwr. (Fuel tank shutoff vlv sws & fuel x-feed vlv sw were lctd nr each otr.) Atmts to restart l eng were unsuccessful. With lack of ac elec pwr, capt could not unfeather rgt eng for restart. Drg emerg lndg, acft was dmgd on uneven trrn. Opnl check of rgt eng (at gnd lvl) revealed no malfunction that would have prevented nml opn. Exam of l eng revealed turbine section had overheated & turbine blades had severe heat dmg. Capt saidthat when he tried to restart l eng, fuel vlvs were in normal psn & pwr lever was 1' abv idle. He recalled an eng RPM OF8000, but didn't recall if he had used feather button to reduce RPM to 3000 (as drctd by checklist). He verified fuel sws were 'on' & he tried to x-feed fuel (in event of blockage). X-feeding of fuel was not part of restart proc. Flt man-ual cautioned abt importance of reducing pwr to flt idle, to decrease fuel flow to eng & minimize possible overheating.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N73160
- Reported as
- Convair 580
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 336
- Airframe hours
- 54,108
- Engine
- Allison 501-D13H, 3,750 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Aspen Airways, doing business as United Express
- Registered owner
- Sierra Pacific Airlines Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · December 7, 1988
- Departed
- DEN · Denver, CO
- Destination
- DRO · Durango, CO
- Flight plan
- IFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 55
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 18,644 total · 6,224 in this make and model · 12,138 as pilot in command · 173 in the last 90 days · 76 in the last 30 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 1 °F, dew point 1 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- LXV, 2 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.