DEN83LA174 · Beech C35
Beech C35 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT) to IV5 · Boulder, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA174
- 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
Beech C35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N12370
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT), Grand Junction, COTo IV5 · Boulder, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A MOUNTAIN IN A CONTROLLED CRASH SITUATION WITH FULL FLAPS AND FULL POWER AT THE 11,312 FT LEVEL THE DENSITY ALT WAS COMPUTED TO BE 12,370 FT MSL. THE PLT WAS AWARE THAT THE WEATHER WAS QUESTIONABLE IN SOME AREAS OF HIS ROUTE AND THE MOUNTAIN TOPS OBSCURED. THE PLT TOLD THE FSS AT GRAND JUNCTION AFTER A WEATHER BRIEFING THAT HE WOULD GO AND FLT CHECK THE WEATHER IN THE AREA AND CALL FSS BACK. AFTER TAKEOFF THERE WERE NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE FLT. THE PLT GAVE SEVERAL ACCOUNTS OF HIS DIFFICULTIES TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE NONE OF WHICH COULD BE VERIFIED. THE PLTSACCOUNT OF A LIGHTING STRIKE AND AIRFRAME FAILURE WERE NOT EVIDENCED BY WRECKAGE EXAMINATION OR BY WITNESSES WHO SAW THEACFT CIRCLING THE VALLEY WEST OF THE TRAIL THEY WERE HORSEBACK RIDING ON. THE PLT SAID HE COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALT. HE TURNED INTO THE HILLSIDE, LOWERED FLAPS, APPLIED FULL POWER AND SETTLED INTO THE TREES. ALL 4 OCCUPANTS GOT OUT WITH MINOR OR NO INJURIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA174
- Event ID
- 20001214X43718
- Case number
- DEN83LA174
- 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: cb68507b43d4407bf1e79a14bcd4145d1c611c72eb61717f7d8495119719e9b6; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:34:04.977Z.