WPR16FA013 · Aviat A-1C-200
Aviat A-1C-200 · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin en route
From Alpine Airpark (46U) to Alpine Airpark (46U)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16FA013
- 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
Aviat A-1C-200
- Aircraft type
- Aviat A-1
- 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
- N280TB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alpine Airpark (46U), Alpine, WYTo Alpine Airpark (46U), Alpine, WY
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2015)
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot, and one passenger, were conducting a formation pleasure/sightseeing flight with another airplane in mountainous terrain. The pilot of the second airplane, who was flying in trail behind the accident airplane, stated that the two airplanes flew into a canyon area. As they approached a ridgeline, the second pilot performed a 360° climbing turn to gain altitude prior to crossing the ridgeline. After he completed his turn, he noticed a dust cloud on the ground ahead of him, and realized that the lead airplane had impacted terrain. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions of failures that would have precluded normal operation. The density altitude about the time of the accident was over 10,990 ft.
Data recovered from the airplane's avionics system indicated that the engine was producing full power throughout the 24-minute flight. Before impact, the airplane's airspeed decreased to between 48 and 50 knots. The airplane's published stall speed was between 46 and 55 knots, depending on the airplane's configuration. Signatures at the accident site and the damage to the airplane indicated a near-vertical impact, consistent with an aerodynamic stall. The passenger reported that, before impact, the airplane was in a turn, and that she heard a beeping sound, consistent with activation of the aural stall warning.
Despite the fact that the airplane's engine was producing full power, the high density altitude conditions would have degraded the engine's performance and the airplane's ability to climb. It is likely that, as the pilot was maneuvering the airplane in an attempt to climb over the rising terrain, he allowed the airspeed to decay and the airplane exceeded its critical angle of attack and subsequently experienced an aerodynamic stall.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering in high density altitude conditions over mountainous terrain, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and experiencing an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16FA013
- Event ID
- 20151015X15949
- Case number
- WPR16FA013
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 3e17acdb71860088191847c2e44959dfbc2707934f4e55d47408b1ede9f06e09; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:32:54.233Z.