DEN83FA156 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83FA156
- 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 PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N6850Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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/spin
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Inadequate initial training
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type operation
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment(visual deficiency)
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN AERIAL APPLICATION MANEUVER, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE INDICATED THAT IT IMPACTED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE WHILE ROTATING TO THE LEFT. THE FLAPS WERE FOUND EXTENDED 25 DEG & THE AIRSPEED GAGE WAS FOUND INDICATING 55 KTS. THE T-HANDLE FOR DUMPING THE CHEMICAL LOAD WAS FOUND IN THE STOWED POSITION & HAD NOT BEEN ACTIVATED. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO THE RIGHT FUEL TANK & BOTH FUEL TANKS WERE FOUND WITH FUEL REMAINING. FLT CONTROL CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED & THE THROTTLE WAS FOUND IN THE FULL FORWARD POSITION. NEITHER THE PLT NOR THE OWNER POSSESSED A CERTIFICATE TO CONDUCT AERIAL APPLICATIONS. ALSO, THERE WAS NO RECORD THAT THE PLT HAD OBTAINED KNOWLEDGE & SKILL TEST, REQUIRED BY 14 CFR 137. THE PLT HAD BEEN ISSUED A 2ND CLASS MEDICAL CERTIFICATE ON 10/23/79 WITH A LIMITATION TO WEAR CORRECTIVE LENSES. HOWEVER, NO GLASSES OR CONTACT LENSES WERE FOUND. THE DENSITY ALT WAS APPROX 7200 FT. REPORTEDLY, THE WINDS WERE STRONG & GUSTY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83FA156
- Event ID
- 20001214X43701
- Case number
- DEN83FA156
- 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: e5d676127955e940825f6be7e56d316f15bf267e94e04fbe6dfa4a3547b4a6c7; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:33:15.573Z.