DEN89LA119 · Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
Western Aviation Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) to Windy Plains Airport (5CO0)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA119
- 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-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
- 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
- N9147Y
- Operator
- Western Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CATo Windy Plains Airport (5CO0)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Pole
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT SAID HE SET UP A LONG FINAL APP IN PREPARATION FOR LANDING ON RWY 19 AT ANIMAS AIRPARK. HE SAID AS HE CROSSED THE END OF THE RWY AT ABOUT 60 FT AGL HE ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE WHICH RESULTED IN THE ACFT DROPPING TO NEAR GROUND LEVEL AND DRIFTING TO THE LT TO AN AREA BESIDE THE RWY. HE ATTEMPTED A GO-AROUND AND DURING THE GO-AROUND THE RT WING COLLIDED WITH A WINDSOCK POLE. THE ACFT REMAINED AIRBORNE AND THE PLT FLEW TO ANOTHER NEARBY AIRPORT FOR LANDING. THE FBO AT ANIMAS AIRPARK SAID THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN TO THE WEST OF THE AIRPORT SOMETIMES RESULTS IN TURBULENCE IN THE VIC OF THE AIRPORT WHICH IS NOT PREDICTABLE OR NOTICEABLE AT GROUND LEVEL. THE ELEV OF THE AIRPORT IS 6690 FT. WITH A TEMP OF 60 F, THE DA WOULD BE 8000 FEET.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE INFLIGHT PLANNING AND INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR WIND CONDITIONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE CROSSWIND AND TURBULENCE ENCOUNTERED CLOSE TO THE GROUND AND HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA119
- Event ID
- 20001213X28294
- Case number
- DEN89LA119
- 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: c9f71bb20247063e4e16d217083f2446b2691669363fc664a9b42a2f4fabac84; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:38:37.574Z.