Cessna 180K N63217 accident near Garden City, Utah

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which led to an aerodynamic stall/spin.

NTSB analysis

The pilot had been on a cross-country trip and was stopping to attend a local festival prior to returning to his home airport. He was performing a low-level flight over his friend's house to signal that he would be landing at a nearby airport. Witnesses reported that the airplane was at 500 feet above ground level, doing banked turns in excess of 45 degrees. The airplane began to climb and then stalled, with the left wing dropping. No preimpact mechanical anomalies were identified during the postaccident examinations. The pilot was based at an airport with an elevation of 472 feet. The calculated density altitude at the accident site was 7,901 feet mean sea level. The high density altitude would have decreased the performance of the airplane and as the pilot was conducting low-altitude maneuvers, leaving little margin for error. Because the pilot primarily operated out of an airport that traditionally has low density altitude conditions, he may not have been fully aware of the performance decrease, especially while manuevering at a low altitude.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for SEA08FA175 for the full record.