DEN89LA006 · Pilgrim STEEN SKYBOLT STEEN SKYB
Pilgrim STEEN SKYBOLT STEEN SKYB · Accident: hard landing
From Western Neb. Rgnl/William B. Heilig Airport (BFF) to Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport (RKS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA006
- 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
Pilgrim STEEN SKYBOLT STEEN SKYB
- Aircraft type
- Pilgrim STEEN SKYBOLT
- 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
- N21SP
- Operator
- Dowdney, Stephen P. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Western Neb. Rgnl/William B. Heilig Airport (BFF), Scottsbluff, NETo Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport (RKS), Rock Springs, WY
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flare, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Recovery from bounced landing, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PVT PLT IN COMMAND AND HIS ATP-RATED PAX WERE FERRYING THE NEWLY-PURCHASED ACFT FROM FL TO WA. THEY DEPARTED SCOTTSBLUFF, NE, AND WERE ENROUTE TO ROCK SPRINGS, WY, WHEN THE PAX ADVISED THE PLT INSUFFICIENT VFR FUEL RESERVES PRECLUDED CONTINUING TO RKS. THE PLT ELECTED TO DIVERT TO RAWLINS. THE PLT SAID WHEN ON FINAL APCH, ACFT WAS SLIGHTLY HIGH ON VASI AND HE CORRECTED. AS THE PLT FLARED FOR LANDING, HE NOTED A HIGH SINK RATE AND ADDED POWER. THE PLT SAID THERE WAS DIP IN THE RWY AND THE ACFT STRUCK THE RISING PORTION OF THE DIP. THE ACFT BOUNCED. THE PLT SAID HE WAS TO THE RIGHT OF CENTERLINE AND HE CORRECTED. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN AGAIN AND VEERED TO THE LEFT. THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO ABORT THE LANDING. THE ACFT LIFTED OFF AGAIN, STALLED, TOUCHED DOWN, SKIDDED SIDEWAYS AND GROUND LOOPED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA006
- Event ID
- 20001213X27036
- Case number
- DEN89LA006
- 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: 23489b60104e62089f182e88ff5614a77e5a77a0fceb59c381d4f002d4c96bb7; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:40:31.984Z.