DEN93LA058 · Sukhoi SU-29
Sukhoi SU-29 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS) to City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN93LA058
- 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
Sukhoi SU-29
- Aircraft type
- Sukhoi SU-29
- 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
- N29RP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS), COLO. SPRINGS, COTo City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS)
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Relinquishing of control, not performed
- Pilot in command › Relinquishing of control, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ROLLED THE AIRPLANE INVERTED, THEN UPRIGHT. THE AIRPLANE PITCHED DOWN AND THE PILOT PULLED THE POWER BACK, HALF ROLLED THE AIRPLANE, AND PUSHED THE CONTROL STICK FORWARD. WHEN THIS FAILED, THE PILOT HALF ROLLED THE AIRPLANE AGAIN AND PULLED THE TRIM TAB IN AN ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE AIRPLANE'S RATE OF DESCENT. WHEN THIS HAD NO EFFECT, THE PILOT JETTISONED THE CANOPY AND HE AND THE SAFETY PILOT BAILED OUT. A SIMILAR INCIDENT HAD OCCURRED SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE INSTRUCTOR WHO HAD GIVEN THE PILOT INSTRUCTION IN THE AIRPLANE SURMISED THAT UNBEKNOWNST TO THE TWO PILOTS, THEY HAD PROBABLY OPERATED THE CONTROLS AGAINST EACH OTHER'S INPUT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF BOTH THE PILOT IN COMMAND AND THE SAFETY PILOT TO RELINQUISH CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. A FACTOR WAS THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE SAFETY PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN93LA058
- Event ID
- 20001211X12375
- Case number
- DEN93LA058
- 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: 7a90c8febdff69b182aaaa61a4486095299c554d7f9200e6e3f372efb96a3352; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:25:17.532Z.