DEN93FA012 · Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN93FA012
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N39683
- Operator
- Kevin K. Opp · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, TXTo Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, 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
- En route · 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON AN IFR CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT TO THE AIRPORT WHERE THE PILOT AND AIRCRAFT WERE BASED, THE FLIGHT WAS CLEARED TO DESCEND, AND CLEARED FOR AN INSTRUMENT APPROACH TO THE PLANNED DESTINATION, AN UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT. RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST WHEN THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED TO AN ALTITUDE BELOW RADAR COVERAGE CAPABILITY. WHEN THE FLIGHT PLAN WAS NOT CLOSED, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED AND THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND APPROXIMATELY 12 HOURS LATER, IN A FIELD APPROXIMATELY NINE MILES FROM THE DESTINATION AIRPORT. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WERE DARK NIGHT, AND 600 FEET BROKEN CLOUDS WITH FOG. STRUCTURAL ICING CONDITIONS WERE PRESENT, AND WERE FORECAST IN THE WEATHER BRIEFING.
Probable cause
INADVERTENT STALL AND LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO STRUCTURAL ICING. FACTORS WERE: ICING CONDITIONS, AND FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN93FA012
- Event ID
- 20001211X16025
- Case number
- DEN93FA012
- 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: 91fa2f4a0c862721eb7b92f21e34f24af611dd9f060cbe480cffaa1b7b24e7a8; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:48:57.247Z.