- Date
- November 24, 1989, 07:54 local (14:54 UTC)
- Place
- Colorado City, CO
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N18FLLanier Thorp T-18
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 30, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19891124046569A
- Case key
- 17794
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
Loss of engine power with carbon fouling of the spark plugs, and failure of the pilot to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in an inadvertent stall.
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
A witness saw the plt preflight the acft. After he took off, the acft entered a steep descent & crashed a short distance from the end of the rwy. An exam of the eng revealed that all spark plugs were carbon fouled. The home built acft had a total of 40 hrs flt time. The eng had a total time of 42 hrs tsmo. The owner/plt had changed the carburetor & spark plugs after the acft had flown 6 hrs & the acft had flown 13 hrs since the last inspn. No preimpact part failure was found.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N18FL
- Reported as
- Lanier Thorp T-18
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 555
- Airframe hours
- 38
- Engine
- Lycoming O-290-G, 125 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Lanier, Frank J.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Unknown · November 14, 1989 · 13 hours before
- Departed
- CO22
- Destination
- CO22
- Airport
- CO22 · Greenhorn Valley, runway 26, 3,900 × 36 ft, grass/turf
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
- 65
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 36 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 90 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 34 °F, dew point 12 °F
- Altimeter
- 26.00 inHg
- Observed at
- PUB, 25 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.