DEN08LA040 · Garniss STOL 701
Garniss STOL 701 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU) to Las Cruces International Airport (LRU)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN08LA040
- 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
- 1 · 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
Garniss STOL 701
- Aircraft type
- Garniss STOL 701
- 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
- N45500
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NMTo Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NM
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
- Pilot in command › Low altitude flight/maneuver, intentional
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 flew his recently-purchased airplane over his home on a "daily basis." Each time, he would "buzz" his house and "wig wag" his wings. On the afternoon of the accident, the airplane circled over a vacant field behind his house in a constant descending left turn. He began to rock his wings as he made a "lower than normal" pass. As the pilot rocked his wings, he "lost control" of the airplane. The left wing tip contacted the ground and the airplane cartwheeled. A toxicological screen performed by FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute found Chlorpheniramine in the pilot's blood and urine. Since it could not be quantified, it could not be determined how much was in the pilot's body or how long he had taken the antihistamine before flying. According to the Regional Federal Air Surgeon, the drug is contraindicated because it may cause drowsiness.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during an intentional low altitude maneuver due to impairment, resulting in the in-flight collision with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN08LA040
- Event ID
- 20080102X00001
- Case number
- DEN08LA040
- 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: 263f2e89c379c67f3e287b0b5dcf8da3bfdbae571b43c2e3400a8d5938324f0b; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:03:22.766Z.