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DEN89LA128 · Piper PA-22-150

29 May 1989 · Rangely, CO, United States

Piper PA-22-150 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water while taxiing

From 4VO to Roosevelt Municipal Airport (74V)

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Event

NTSB case
DEN89LA128
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-22-150

Aircraft type
Piper PA-22
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
N8065D
Operator
Lowell T Angle · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 4VOTo Roosevelt Municipal Airport (74V), Roosevelt, UT
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
Taxi · to runway
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 on ground/water
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 › Planning/decision, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT RPRTD HE WAS MAKING A LEFT TURN ONTO RWY 24, WHEN THE STRONG/GUSTY WIND PUSHED THE ACFT TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY. AS THE RIGHT (DOWNWIND) WHEEL DROPPED OFF THE PAVEMENT, THE LEFT WING LIFTED, THEN THE PROP & RIGHT WING TIP CONTACTED THE GROUND & THE ACFT WENT OVER TO AN INVERTED POSITION. THE PLT ESTD THE WIND WAS FROM 220 DEG AT 30 KTS. THIS WAS HIS 1ST FLT AFTER A WING LIFT MODIFICATION (TO EXTEND THE WING TIPS) HAD BEEN INSTALLED. HE STATED THE ACFT HAD BEEN IN THE SHOP FOR ABOUT 90 DAYS & HE HAD LOST 'THE EDGE' FROM LACK OF (RECENT) FLT TIME. ALSO, HE SAID HE WAS NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE NEW HANDLING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ACFT.

Probable cause

IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT. THE HIGH WIND, GUSTS, THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE, AND HIS LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRCRAFT'S NEW HANDLING CHARACTERISTICS WERE CONSIDERED TO BE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN89LA128
Event ID
20001213X28300
Case number
DEN89LA128
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: ca823af6fb37bac7fb0c6a52a012dc0376597f14065ff56726c7cfdc85087595; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:33:59.040Z.