DEN83FA044 · Piper AEROSTAR 602P AEROSTAR 6
Piper AEROSTAR 602P AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Casper-Natrona County International Airport (CPR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83FA044
- 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
- 1 · 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 AEROSTAR 602P AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Piper AEROSTAR 602
- 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
- N6893L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Casper-Natrona County International Airport (CPR), Casper, WYTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 in flight
- 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
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE DEPARTING, THE PLT OBTAINED A WX BRIEFING & WAS ADVISED OF A SIGMET WHICH FORECASTED SEVERE TURBULENCE BELOW 18,000 FT, STRONG UP/DOWNDRAFTS, STRONG SURFACE WINDS & WIND SHEAR NEAR MOUNTAINS & IN PASSES. HE TOOK OFF WITH FULL FUEL TANKS & APRX 400 LBS OF CARGO ON BOARD. ARTCC REPORTED THAT THE EN ROUTE PORTION OF THE FLT WAS HANDLED ROUTINELY. DURING ARRIVAL, THE PLT CONTACTED THE ARPT UNICOM FOR A LANDING ADVISORY. A KING AIR PLT WAS ARRIVING AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME & ASKED THE AEROSTAR PLT IF HE WAS MAKING A FULL STOP. THE AEROSTAR PLT REPLIED THAT HE WAS. THE KING AIR PLT LOST SIGHT OF THE AEROSTAR & BEGAN A 360 DEG TURN. HE ASKED THE AEROSTAR PLT TO ADVISE OF HIS POSITION, & SHORTLY THEREAFTER,THE AEROSTAR PLT TRANSMITTED 3 MAYDAY CALLS. REPORTEDLY, THE ACFT NOSED UP & WENT INTO A STEEP RGT BANK JUST BFR IMPACT.NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT MOST OF THE CARGO WAS IN THE BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT (LIMITED TO 240 LBS) & COULD HAVE MOVED THE CG WELL BEYOND THE AFT LIMIT. ELEV TRIM FND FULL NOSE DOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83FA044
- Event ID
- 20001214X41969
- Case number
- DEN83FA044
- 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 1983-01-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 698a597ef8129119c691c53992e4b3cc05a06cb6982c7515d78f51c3ef9a42ae; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:18:07.628Z.