DEN03FA133 · Grumman American AA-5B
Grumman American AA-5B · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (SBS) to Unknown
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN03FA133
- 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
- 3 · 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
Grumman American AA-5B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman American AA-5
- 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
- N742BM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (SBS), Steamboat Springs, COTo Unknown
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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/mush
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to one witness, an airplane, matching the description of the accident airplane, departed an airport near Fort Collins, Colorado, at approximately 0900. A second witness reported that an airplane, matching that same description, landed at an airport near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. According to the second witness, the airplane was on the ground for a short time. During this time, the second witness assisted the pilot in servicing one of the airplane's main landing gear tires with air while one of the passengers took a bathroom break. The pilot did not purchase any fuel for the aircraft. The airplane departed at approximately 1045. According to the local Sheriff's office, at 1116, they received a report of vertically rising black smoke near Rabbit Ears Pass. At approximately 1330, a crew in a firefighting helicopter dispatched to the scene to contain the fire, reported that there was aircraft wreckage in the fire. At approximately 1630, a search and rescue team reported an unknown number of fatalities. Due to the post impact fire, the immediate identification of the aircraft and its occupants was not possible. A serial number, obtained from the airplane's engine, was later used to identify the wreckage. The accident site was located in mountainous terrain at an elevation of approximately 9,500 feet msl. The on-site investigation revealed several damaged trees along a 200-foot debris path preceding the accident site near the crest of a heavily forested mountain valley. No preimpact airframe or engine anomalies were identified. The calculated density altitude, at an airport approximately 27 nautical miles west of the accident site, was 9,152 feet msl.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain terrain clearance. Contributing factors include the pilot's inadequate preflight planning/preparation, high density altitude, and mountainous conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN03FA133
- Event ID
- 20030725X01196
- Case number
- DEN03FA133
- 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: 85d5e701112f0f6a489602983b70bd30cd82bb9fb01a19a2a3fe1058c6b18e40; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:02:02.008Z.