DEN01FA096 · Beech 76
Beech 76 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Centennial Airport (APA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN01FA096
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 76
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 76
- 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
- N6002H
- Operator
- Wings of Denver
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, COTo 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
- 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 object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Flightcrew › Buzzing, intentional
- Flightcrew › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Numerous witnesses, some as far away as 25 miles from the accident site, observed a low-flying airplane matching the description of the accident airplane. It was seen to drop down to near the surface of a reservoir, continue for several miles, then pull up and strike four 1/2-inch diameter aluminum high tension power lines that spanned the width of the reservoir. Three lines carried 26,000 volts and the ground (static) line carried 12,000 volts. The distance between the supporting structures was 1,245 feet. The low point of the drooping cables was about 250 feet above the water's surface. The cables were unmarked, and there are no regulations requiring that they be marked. The airplane was flying towards a setting sun when the collision occurred. Both pilots were commercial certificated, instrument rated, and flight instructors. The airplane was equipped with dual flight controls; therefore, which pilot was serving as pilot-in-command during the flight is not known. The medical examiner found a piece of paper clutched in the first (left seat) pilot's fist. It was later identified as being a portion of the Denver Sectional Chart, and depicted an area just north of the accident site. According to the pathologist, the injuries exhibited by the second (right seat) pilot were consistent with (and the injuries exhibited by the first pilot were not consistent with) being at the controls of the airplane. Toxicological screening revealed tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid (marijuana) in the second pilot's blood [0.0096 (ug/ml, ug/g)] and urine [0.0768 (ug/ml, ug/g)]. The first pilot tested negative for drugs and alcohol.
Probable cause
intentional buzzing by both pilots and their failure to maintain clearance with transmission wires. A contributing factor was the sun glare.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN01FA096
- Event ID
- 20010521X00977
- Case number
- DEN01FA096
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-05-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8a5cf83e1502e1f16f69efda032492ab1170eba8cf84a2a748fdcf56d107a444; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:33:28.146Z.