American Check Transport Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 accident
Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Centennial Airport (APA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN03LA075
- 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
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-60
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N157CA
- Operator
- American Check Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UTTo Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Visibility was greater than 6 miles, but was restricted due to moderate to heavy rain as the pilot started his takeoff roll on runway 35. Near rotation speed, he felt a tire blow out followed by some hydroplaning. He aborted the takeoff and taxied back to the ramp. Airplane inspection revealed substantial damage to the left engine and cowling, propeller, and landing gear. In addition, the pressure vessel was breached. The pilot surmised that he had aligned the airplane with the left side runway edge lights instead of the centerline lights. He attributed this to his "vision being partially obstructed by moderate rain." Postaccident examination revealed 15 to 20 runway lights were either damaged or destroyed.
Probable cause
the pilot improperly aligning the airplane on the runway for takeoff. Contributing factors were the reduced visibility due to rain, and the dark night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN03LA075
- Event ID
- 20030428X00588
- Case number
- DEN03LA075
- 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, coordinates. 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: cbe7c20926f39bce3369deacaf3f638f2dc84296dab38568edcb53d445bf875f; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:50:46.891Z.