DEN89LA203 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From 33U to 36U · HEBER, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA203
- 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-28-180
- 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
- N7111W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 33UTo 36U · HEBER, 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT HE & A FRIEND WERE TAKING OFF ON A SOFT, DIRT RWY WITH AN ESTIMATED 23 KNOT HEADWIND. HE SAID THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF GROUND RUN, THE PLANE ENCOUNTERED A GUST OF WIND THAT HE ESTIMATED AS 50 KTS. THE PLANE TURNED SHARPLY TO THE LEFT. THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO CORRECT WITH RIGHT RUDDER. HE SAID HE PULLED THE NOSE OFF THE GROUND AS THE PLANE DEPARTED THE RUNWAY TO THE LEFT. THE PLANE FLEW OVER SAGE BRUSH BESIDE THE RUNWAY, BUT THE LEFT WING STRUCK A 10 FT HIGH CEDAR TREE ABOUT 8 FT ABOVE THE GROUND. THE PLANE THEN HIT THE GROUND & NOSED OVER.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR THE WIND CONDITIONS BY THE PILOT, RESULTING IN A LOSS OF CONTROL DURING THE TAKEOFF GROUND RUN. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE UNFAVORABLE (VARIABLE/GUSTY) WIND CONDITION, AND THE HIGH VEGETATION AND TREE BESIDE THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA203
- Event ID
- 20001213X29110
- Case number
- DEN89LA203
- 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: e7f17c909240d184a5f2d75fdeb581d2e8336ccab4c506352bb468b9a5414d00; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:13:16.155Z.