DEN89LA129 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From Angel Fire Airport (AXX) to Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA129
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N9421N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Angel Fire Airport (AXX)To Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 › Gear extension, not performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE TAKEOFF WAS MADE ON RWY 35 WITH A DENSITY ALT CALCULATED TO BE 10,645 FT. THE LOCAL WINDS WERE REPORTED TO BE FROM 270 DEGREES AT 25 KTS WITH GUSTS TO 30 KTS. THE PILOT STATED THE WIND EFFECT ON TAKEOFF WAS 'NOTABLY MORE SEVERE' AND THERE WAS MODERATE TURBULENCE. THE ACFT GAINED 300 FT BUT THE TURN TO CROSSWIND RESULTED IN ALTITUDE LOSS. THE PILOT STATED HE COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND EXECUTED AN OFF ARPT PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WITH THE GEAR UP. THE ARPT FIXED BASE OPERATOR STATED SEVERAL AIRCRAFT ABANDONED LANDINGS AND DIVERTED TO OTHER AIRPORTS DUE TO TURBULENCE AND HIGH WIND.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY EVALUATE THE EXISTING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND THE SUBSEQUENT TAKEOFF INTO ADVERSE CONDITIONS WHICH DEGRADED THE AIRPLANE'S CLIMB CAPABILITY. THE PILOT PERFORMED AN INTENTIONAL GEAR UP LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA129
- Event ID
- 20001213X28301
- Case number
- DEN89LA129
- 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: 68b9fd1af77629842f114803da31d365ac3b7693dc13b271bc5a6afb216870d9; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:12:49.058Z.