DEN93LA035 · Pitts S2B
Flatirons Aviation Pitts S2B · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From 1V5 to 1V5
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN93LA035
- 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
Pitts S2B
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S2
- 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
- N876CB
- Operator
- Flatirons Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1V5To 1V5
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR DECIDED TO SIMULATE A POWER LOSS BY CLOSING THE THROTTLE. THE STUDENT RESPONDED BY TURNING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE RUNWAY. WHEN IT BECAME APPARENT THE AIRPLANE WAS AT TOO LOW AN ALTITUDE TO GLIDE TO THE RUNWAY, THE INSTRUCTOR TOLD THE STUDENT TO ADD POWER AND SHE DID. THE INSTRUCTOR SAID HE SAW TREES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AIRPLANE THAT THE AIRPLANE WOULD CLEAR. HE DID NOT, HOWEVER, SEE A TREE DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE AIRPLANE. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE TREE. THE INSTRUCTOR TOOK CONTROL AND LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A VISUAL LOOKOUT. A FACTOR WAS: THE STUDENT PILOT'S RESTRICTED VISUAL LOOKOUT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN93LA035
- Event ID
- 20001211X11970
- Case number
- DEN93LA035
- 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: e4882b617bc620a0889045f2d9ca4fcccb417c569cfe6d4810eee998dcb35930; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:14:20.010Z.