DEN05LA039 · Raytheon Aircraft Company C90A
Raytheon Aircraft Company C90A · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to North Las Vegas Airport (VGT)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN05LA039
- 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
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Raytheon Aircraft Company C90A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 90
- 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
- N55EP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UTTo North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), Las Vegas, NV
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Antenna
- 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 › Low altitude flight/maneuver, initiated
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not obtained/maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated the taxi, takeoff roll, and rotation were normal. The pilot maintained runway heading until visual contact with the ground was lost, at which time a left turn to the assigned heading of 240 degrees was initiated. The pilot stated that while in the left turn, an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System warning of sink rate was received. A review of the instrument panel revealed a "climbing left turn" on the left instrument panel and a "descending left turn" on the right instrument panel. The pilot stated that he saw a red light and "immediately pulled hard up" at which time, the airplane struck a weather station antenna. The pilot added full power, leveled the wings and initiated a positive rate of climb, cross referencing both instrument panels until he was clear of the clouds. According to the FAA, the weather station antenna was located approximately 200 feet west of the departure runway, south of the Sierra taxiway, and west of the Romeo taxiway. The antenna measured 40 feet above ground level with a 4 foot lightening arrest rod attached at the top of the antenna. The FAA reported that the airplane impacted the antenna at a 30 foot level. The pilot and co pilot pitot instrument systems were removed from the airplane for bench testing. The test indicated that the systems did not leak and were in compliance with FAR 91.411. An examination of the remaining airplane systems, conducted by the FAA, revealed no anomalies. According to the aviation routine weather report taken at 1856, the weather was reported as visibility, 1/4 statute mile, freezing fog; sky condition, overcast 200 feet agl; temperature, minus 03 degrees Celsius (C), dewpoint, minus 04 degrees C.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to obtain/maintain a proper climb rate and the pilot's premature initiation of the turn (low altitude flight maneuver). Contributing factors include the pilot's improper in-flight planning and decision making, the low altitude, the fog, and the weather antenna.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN05LA039
- Event ID
- 20041221X02014
- Case number
- DEN05LA039
- 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 2004-12-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c8363ac574404b81031527514e5fdd1bc0ac55053e69c8f22601c50e25efed93; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:24:55.493Z.