FTW96FA279 · Prevatt RV-6
Prevatt RV-6 and Burkhart Grob G103C TWIN III ACRO G103C TWIN · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96FA279
- 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
- 2 · 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
Aircraft 1 · Prevatt RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Prevatt RV-6
- 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
- N194JP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2V2 · Longmont, COTo Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Burkhart Grob G103C TWIN III ACRO G103C TWIN
- Aircraft type
- Grob G103
- Category
- Glider
- 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
- N103LM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1V5To not recorded
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, improper
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Altitude, improper
- Pilot of other aircraft › Judgment, poor
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the RV-6, N194JP, was crossing over the airport at traffic pattern altitude (6,100 feet msl, 812 feet agl) en route to Englewood, Colorado. The pilot of the glider, N103LM, was approaching the airport at pattern altitude and was getting ready to turn onto the downwind leg. The front seat passenger in the glider yelled that there was an approaching airplane directly in front. The pilot of the glider made a steep left bank and deployed his dive brakes in an evasive maneuver. According to witnesses, the glider's right wing tip struck the approaching RV-6's propeller, right main wheel, and lower cowling. The glider continued the left bank and landed safely. The RV-6 was seen to make a steep right bank and fly towards the northwest. The pilot of the RV-6 transmitted a distress call on the UNICOM frequency. Witnesses then observed the RV-6 to make a steep left turn, stall, and impact a lake near the runway threshold.
Probable cause
Poor judgment by the pilot of the RV-6, N194JP, in that he traversed an uncontrolled airport at traffic pattern altitude, failure of the pilots of both airplanes to see and avoid each other, and an inadvertent airplane stall encountered by the pilot of the RV-6 while maneuvering for an emergency landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96FA279
- Event ID
- 20001208X05959
- Case number
- FTW96FA279
- 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: 22090f70d2be4fcdabc26dd66105a9442a9bfd6788d0a99673d2ed2cde2cf1c9; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:17:57.864Z.