CEN20CA139 · Rans S-12 Airaile
Rans S-12 Airaile · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Hillrose, CO to Hillrose, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN20CA139
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Rans S-12 Airaile
- Aircraft type
- Rans S 12 AIRAILE
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hillrose, COTo Hillrose, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 30 years (built 1990)
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noncertificated pilot reported that, during a local flight, he noticed an area of smoke and fire near his property. The pilot descended the airplane to about 20 ft above ground level to see what was burning, which diverted his attention from flying. The pilot "immediately" pulled up to avoid power lines, but the airplane struck the lines. The airplane then impacted the ground and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the wings and empennage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The noncertificated pilot's diverted attention while looking at a fire during low-altitude flying, which resulted in a collision with power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN20CA139
- Event ID
- 20200406X31200
- Case number
- CEN20CA139
- 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. 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: c34a40234da1a4d8c955d971296882ade8f3abd4030ea9dc046bbc60ecfddd5f; retrieved 2026-09-16T11:24:44.963Z.