DEN93LA095 · Cessna 182Q
Centennial Flight Centre Cessna 182Q · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Durango La Plata County Airport (DRO) to City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN93LA095
- 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
Cessna 182Q
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- CGLIL
- Operator
- Centennial Flight Centre
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Durango La Plata County Airport (DRO), Durango, COTo City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS), COLORADO SPRGS, 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
- Approach
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ALTERED COURSE SLIGHTLY TO THE SOUTH TO AVOID A THUNDERSTORM AND BEGAN FOLLOWING A ROAD. SOON THEREAFTER, THE ROAD DISAPPEARED FROM SIGHT AND THE PILOT'S ATTENTION WAS MOMENTARILY DIVERTED OUTSIDE THE AIRPLANE. SHE THEN REALIZED THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WAS RISING FASTER THAN THE AIRPLANE'S CLIMB PERFORMANCE. SHE ELECTED NOT TO RISK TURNING AROUND BUT TO CONTINUE AHEAD AND LAND IN AN OPEN FIELD. DURING THE LANDING APPROACH, THE AIRPLANE BRUSHED THE TOPS OF SEVERAL TREES. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN, BOUNCED ONCE, SLID APPROXIMATELY 25 FEET BEFORE STRIKING A ROCK THAT SHEARED THE NOSEWHEEL, AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER.
Probable cause
THE DECISION BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND TO FLY AT AN ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT FOR THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN. FACTORS WERE: THE PILOT'S ATTENTION BEING MOMENTARILY DIVERTED AND THE AIRPLANE'S CLIMB PERFORMANCE BEING EXCEEDED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN93LA095
- Event ID
- 20001211X12906
- Case number
- DEN93LA095
- 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: f181a99b9ac65847b89c30a64aef553d3518bc7f78a219259beb3a1d2db1c5f7; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:51:32.252Z.