DEN87LA239 · Cessna 195
Cessna 195 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Taos Regional Airport (SKX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN87LA239
- 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 195
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 195
- 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
- N3006B
- Operator
- Duane L. Burnett · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Taos Regional Airport (SKX), Taos, NM
- 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
- 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
- Flight control, elevator › Movement restricted
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Control interference, not corrected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT AFTER HE LNDD TO PICK UP A PAX, HE ENGAGED THE CONTROL LOCK FM HABIT, BUT DID NOT SHUT DWN THE ENG. HE GOT CLNC TO TAXI BACK TO THE RWY & TAKEOFF, BUT 'FORGOT TO RELEASE CONTROL LOCK.' THE CESSNA 195 HAS A COMBINATION CONTROL LOCK AND PARKING BRAKE. WHEN ENGAGED, IT SETS THE BRAKES & LOCKED ONLY THE AILERONS & RUDDER. IT DID NOT LOCK THE ELEVATORS. HOWEVER, THE ELEVATOR SYS HAS A 'DETENT' THAT WOULD HOLD THE CONTROL FULL FORWARD. SINCE THE ELEVATOR CONTROL WAS FULL FORWRD, THE TAIL OF THE ACFT CAME UP QUICKLY. THE PLT STATED THT 'UPON REALIZING WHAT WAS HAPPENING, I TRIED TO UNLOCK CONTROL BUT WAS TOO LATE AND NOSE WENT INTO RUNWAY CAUSING FLIP-OVER.' LATER, WHEN THE PLT WAS CONTACTEDFOR CLARIFICATION, HE SAID HE HAD MOVED THE CONTROL INTO THE DETENT TO GET IT OUT OF HIS WAY. ALSO, HE SAID THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, HE COULD HAVE PULLED THE CONTROL OUT OF THE DETENT 'WITH A LITTLE EXTRA EFFORT,' BUT 'THINGS JUST HAPPENED TOO FAST.'
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN87LA239
- Event ID
- 20001213X32064
- Case number
- DEN87LA239
- 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: 56783f69f6ff93da8f39f14c01dc260d2df79f4c467e36207224e112a31f68a3; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:43:51.367Z.