DEN88LA065 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR) to Hicks Air Field (T67)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN88LA065
- 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
Piper PA-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N32982
- Operator
- Latham, Woody · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR), Ruidoso, NMTo Hicks Air Field (T67), Fort Worth, TX
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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/mush; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Performance data, disregarded
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PLT AND TWO PAX ATTEMPTED TAKEOFF AT OR NEAR MAX GWT AT A DENSITY ALT OF 6,500 FT MSL. FULL FUEL HAD BEEN LOADED IN THE RIGHT TANK AND THE PLT INDICATED THAT THE LEFT TANK WAS EMPTY. RWY 24 WAS IN USE WITH A 70 DEGREE X-WIND REPORTED FROM 310 DEGREES AT 14, GUSTING TO 32 KTS. THE TWR OPERATOR SAID THAT ON TAKEOFF 'THE AIRCRAFT LIFTED OFF THEN WENT NOSE HIGH.' THE ACFT WENT OUT OF SIGHT OFF THE END OF RWY. TWICE, THE RIGHT WING DROPPED TOWARD THE RWY AS THE NOSE WENT HIGH. WITNESSES REPORT THAT THE ACFT NEVER CLIMBED ABOVE 25 FT AGL. THE ACFT STRUCK THE TOP WIRE OF THE ARPT FENCE AT FOUR FT AGL PRIOR TO IMPACT. THE ACFT STRUCK TREES BEYOND THE END OF RWY 24 AND BOTH WINGS SEPARATED FROM THE FUSELAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN88LA065
- Event ID
- 20001213X25252
- Case number
- DEN88LA065
- 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: 530d6f5bf2b0bbee9d7068c08b7a5094f94e851c280f1b461dad71919d435cf7; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:13:01.291Z.