Alpine Aviation Piper PA-42 accident
Piper PA-42 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From OAB · Moab, UT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN93FA009
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Piper PA-42
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-42
- 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
- N250TJ
- Operator
- Alpine Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From OAB · Moab, UTTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · IFR initial 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 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Became lost/disoriented
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMUTER AIR CARRIER DEPARTED MOAB, UTAH, AND FLEW TO GRAND JUNCTION, CO, VIA RNAV DIRECT MACKS INTERSECTION. AFTER CROSSING MACKS INTERSECTION, THE AIRPLANE TURNED RIGHT BUT INSTEAD OF INTERCEPTING THE LOCALIZER COURSE, THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED ON A SLIGHTLY DIVERGENT TRACK TO THE EAST OF THE LOCALIZER. THE PILOT TOLD CONTROL TOWER PERSONNEL, 'I'M SHOWING TWELVE MILES OUT ON THE ILS...GETTING REAL...ERRONEOUS SIGNAL, HERE. ANY COMPLAINTS?' THE PILOT WAS ADVISED NO DIFFICULTY REPORTS HAD BEEN RECEIVED. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A MESA ONE MINUTE LATER ABOUT FIVE MILES TO THE LEFT OF THE LOCALIZER COURSE. THE COCKPIT WAS DESTROYED AND NO MEANINGFUL INFORMATION WAS OBTAINED FROM THE NAVIGATIONAL RADIOS. ALL OF THE AIRPORT'S NAVIGATIONAL AIDS WERE LATER FLIGHT CHECKED AND NO DISCREPANCIES WERE FOUND. ALTHOUGH VMC PREVAILED AT THE AIRPORT, THE ACCIDENT SITE WAS ABOVE THE REPORTED CEILING HEIGHT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IFR PROCEDURE AND RESULTANT DISORIENTATION WHICH RESULTED IN A COLLISION WITH TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN93FA009
- Event ID
- 20001211X15849
- Case number
- DEN93FA009
- 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: 24bb696d3621d4aeaf1400c7620621e0e313414a31e76f170029e84a718f30e2; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:56:25.506Z.