FTW95FA002 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Page Municipal Airport (PGA) to San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field (ALS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95FA002
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28R-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N1480X
- Operator
- Same As Registered Owner
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Page Municipal Airport (PGA), Page, AZTo San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field (ALS), Alamosa, CO
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PRIVATE PILOTS, ENROLLED IN A PROFESSIONAL PILOT COURSE, WERE BUILDING CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT TIME FOR THEIR COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATION. ON THE RETURN FLIGHT FROM CALIFORNIA TO TEXAS, ROUTING WAS PLANNED THROUGH COLORADO FOR THE INSTRUCTIONAL PORTION OF THE MOUNTAIN CURRICULUM. AIRMETS INCLUDED WEATHER ADVISORIES FOR TURBULENCE. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AMENDED THE FLIGHT ROUTE AND CONTINUED EVEN THOUGH FLIGHT WATCH ISSUED THE AIRMET FOR TURBULENCE AND THAT VFR WAS NOT RECOMMENDED. COMPANY PERSONNEL REPORTED THAT THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR HAD MADE NUMEROUS FLIGHTS ALONG THE REGULAR MOUNTAIN FLYING CURRICULUM ROUTE (HIGHEST ELEVATION 9,927 FEET); HOWEVER, 'THIS WAS THE INSTRUCTOR'S FIRST TRIP CROSSING THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE THROUGH THE CANYON AT ELWOOD PASS' AN ELEVATION OF 11,875 FEET. DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS CALCULATED AT 14,000 FEET. THIS WAS THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S SECOND DEMONSTRATION THAT DAY FOR A 180 DEGREE TURN- AROUND PROCEDURE IN A BOX CANYON ENVIRONMENT. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT 'NEAR THE COMPLETION OF THE TURN, WE EXPERIENCED A SEVERE UNEXPECTED DOWNDRAFT' WITH A RESULTING RATE OF DECENT OF '6,000 FPM' AND THE AIRPLANE HIT THE TREES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONTINUED FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE GEOGRAPHIC AREA, THE TURBULENCE AND HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95FA002
- Event ID
- 20001206X02422
- Case number
- FTW95FA002
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e5893b2cee479400cda9eb194928be2b7bfa35260173c36279f5ce48eff03d0a; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:36:31.652Z.