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DEN88FA016

1987-10-25 · MITCHELL, South Dakota, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport MHE

N1257E has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV-6A), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE ACFT HAD BEEN CLEARED FOR THE VOR APPROACH AT MITCHELL MUNICIPAL ARPT AT APPROX 1915 CST. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND IN A SLIGHT NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE ABOUT 12 MILES NORTHWEST OF THE ARPT AT THE POINT WHERE THE PROCEDURE TURN INTERSECTED THE INBOUND COURSE. IT WAS A DARK NIGHT WITH LITTLE SURFACE ILLUMINATION AND IMC EXISTED AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF AIRFRAME, ENG, OR SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_DEN88FA016.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.