DEN89LA133 · Cessna 182RG
Cessna 182RG · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water while taxiing
From 1W1 · WATKINS, CO to Centennial Airport (APA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA133
- 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
Cessna 182RG
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N999HP
- Operator
- Wings of Denver
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1W1 · WATKINS, COTo Centennial Airport (APA)
- 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 · from 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
- On ground/water collision with terrain/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 › Unsafe/hazardous condition warning, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT MADE AN 'UNEVENTFUL' LANDING ON RWY 17L. HE SAID THAT HE LEFT RWY 17L VIA TAXIWAY A-4, AND TAXIED THROUGH A BREAK IN A ROW OF FLAGS (BETWEEN RWY 17L AND THE DELTA PARKING RAMP). AFTER TRAVELING ABOUT 50 FT ALONG THE TAXIWAY, THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR ENTERED AN OPEN TRENCH. THE ACFT STOPPED, BUT WITH SOME DIFFICULTY IN STEERING, THE PLT WAS ABLE TO TAXI TO THE PARKING AREA. HE SAID HE SAW NO DAMAGE DURING A POST FLIGHT INSPECTION, BUT WAS NOTIFIED OF THE DAMAGE 10 DAYS LATER. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, A NOTAM WAS IN EFFECT, AND THE ATIS CONTAINED A RECORDED WARNING ABOUT THE TAXIWAY CONSTRUCTION. ONLY NORMAL TAXIWAY LIGHTING WAS IN USE, BUT HIGH VISIBILITY CONES AND FLAGS MARKED THE CONSTRUCTION AREA. THIS PLT WAS NOT SCHEDULED OR SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED TO FLY THE ACFT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW WARNINGS PROVIDED BY A NOTAM & FLAGS ON THE TAXIWAY. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS AND THE DITCH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA133
- Event ID
- 20001213X28302
- Case number
- DEN89LA133
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-05-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 11bc09e0b9c5bc6acd3a0db368aede9fa5f5e73b44ccb8311e2807f1e70e615e; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:35:24.037Z.