- Date
- November 4, 1987, 12:34 local (19:34 UTC)
- Place
- Durango, CO
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 2 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N8266UPiper PA-28-181
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report February 24, 1989
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19871104082149A
- Case key
- 17340
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The two pax had chartered N8266U for a sightseeing flight of the local area. The charter plt, a CFI found that one of the pax was a plt and permitted him to fly the acft. The pax expressed an interest in spotting elk and flew the acft into a canyon, below the canyon ridge line. The acft approached the end of the canyon and the plt executed a left turn. The back seat pax stated the stall warn horn sounded during the turn. The CFI took control of the acft but was unable to recover before the acft collided with trees. The terrain rises to above 10,000 ft. the calculated climb rate was determined to be 200 ft per min approx.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8266U
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-181
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-8390002
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A4A, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Part 91
- Operator
- Durango Air Service, Inc.
- Registered owner
- Newton Enterprises
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · October 23, 1987
- Departed
- DRO · Durango, CO
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 27
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 1,290 total · 129 in this make and model · 1,060 as pilot in command · 365 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 75 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 45 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DRO, 15 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.