LAX92LA255 · Stinson 108-3
Stinson 108-3 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
From Mifflintown Airport (P34) to OUF · Denver, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA255
- 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
Stinson 108-3
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N589C
- Operator
- Stone, Daniel K. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mifflintown Airport (P34)To OUF · Denver, 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Performance data, not used
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER RECEIVING HIS PREFLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFING THE PILOT TOOK OFF IN HIS 166 HORSEPOWER, HEAVILY LOADED AIRPLANE, FROM AN AIRPORT WITH A DENSITY ALTITUDE OF 9,988 FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THE PILOT CALCULATED THE DENSITY ALTITUDE OR THE AIRCRAFT'S PERFORMANCE PRIOR TO THE TAKEOFF. AS THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED THROUGH 400 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND IT ENCOUNTERED A DOWN DRAFT AND BEGAN TO DESCEND. THE AIRCRAFT THEN BEGAN TO CLIMB AGAIN AND THE PILOT ENTERED A TURN TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT. DURING THE TURN, THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A DESCENT AND COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO CALCULATE THE AIRCRAFT'S PERFORMANCE DATA AND PERFORM A WEATHER EVAULUATION. THE EXISTING HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA255
- Event ID
- 20001211X14910
- Case number
- LAX92LA255
- 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: 3054c8f29583c6eb0c8fd3027f0b0c84d73eeca33f7a9d2e4b2df45b32ab4c7f; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:02:09.643Z.