DEN89LA196 · Piper PA-28-235
Piper PA-28-235 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Centennial Airport (APA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA196
- 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-28-235
- 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
- N56654
- Operator
- Corlett, David L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, CO
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 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 › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT & 3 PSGRS WERE BEGINNING A X-COUNTRY FLT. THE PLT SAID HE MADE A 'QUICK OUTSIDE CHECK' OF THE AIRPLANE THAT DID NOT INCLUDE A FUEL SUMP DRAIN. HE TAXIED ONTO RWY 1, WHICH SLOPED UPWARD TO THE NORTH. HE ESTIMATED THE WINDS WERE CALM. THE PLT SAID HE STARTED HIS TAKEOFF RUN 300 FT DOWN THE RUNWAY, MADE A 'RUNNING' MAGNETO CHECK, BUT HE DID NOT MAKE A CARBURETOR HEAT CHECK. HE SAID THE PLANE ONLY CLIMBED ABOUT 30 FT AGL. HE NOTICED IT WAS NOT CLIMBING AS FAST AS THE TERRAIN ROSE, SO HE DECIDED TO LAND IN A FIELD TO AVOID POWER LINES IN THE FLT PATH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE LEFT WING HIT THE GND & THE LANDING GEAR WAS TORN OFF. THE DOOR JAMMED, BUT A PASSERBY HELPED THE OCCUPANTS FROM THE CABIN. AN INVESTIGATION FAILED TO REVEAL ANY PRE-ACDNT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. DENSITY ALT WAS ABOUT 8700 FT. ABOUT 37 MI WEST, THE WIND FROM 200 DEG AT 5 KTS.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, UPHILL SLOPING RUNWAY, FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW THE CHECKLIST AND USE ALL OF THE AVAILABLE RUNWAY, AND THE RISING TERRAIN AND OBSTRUCTION (POWER LINE) BEYOND THE END OF THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA196
- Event ID
- 20001213X29106
- Case number
- DEN89LA196
- 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: f2d6f9facf30a428364b2a5388750b41f2d655b36efb248c8ee850794741db34; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:50:52.944Z.