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DEN89DTI02

1989-07-02 · LEWISTOWN, Montana, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport LWT

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE UNQUALIFIED PILOT ALLOWED THE AIRCRAFT TO BECOME AIRBORNE WHILE TAXIING AT HIGH SPEED, HE FAILED TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, AND HE INADVERTENTLY ALLOWED IT TO ENTER A STALL/SPIN AND CRASHED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: HIS FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURES/DIRECTIVES, AND HIS LACK OF QUALIFICATION AS A PILOT

Factual narrative

THE OWNER OF THE HOME BUILT ACFT HAD PURCHASED IT FROM THE BUILDER. HE POSSESSED NEITHER AN FAA MEDICAL, NOR A PLT CERTIFICATE, & HAD NO PREVIOUS FLT TIME IN THIS MAKE & MODEL OF ACFT. HE TOLD A WITNESS THAT HE INTENDED TO TAXI IT (PRESUMABLY FOR FAMILIARIZATION). SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE & REMAINED WITHIN ABOUT 1/2 MI OF THE DEP END OF RWY 30. WITNESSES OBSERVED IT MANEUVERING ERRATICALLY AFTER TAKEOFF. ONE WITNESS BELIEVED THE UNQUALIFIED PLT CROSS- CONTROLLED THE ACFT WITH LEFT RUDDER & RGT AILERON; THE WITNESS SAID THE ACFT NEARLY HIT A HANGAR. SUBSEQUENTLY, AFTER AN APPARENT PWR REDUCTION, THE ACFT ENTERED A STALL/SPIN & CRASHED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. A LOCAL CFI RPRTD HE HAD GIVEN THE PLT APRX 4 HRS OF DUAL INSTRUCTION DURING A PREVIOUS 12 TO 24 MONTH PERIOD, BUT THE PLT HAD NOT SHOWN INTEREST IN FOLLOWING A REGULAR/STRUCTURED PROGRAM OF INSTRUCTION. DURING TESTS, CANNABINOIDS WERE DETECTED IN THE PLT'S URINE, BUT NONE WAS FOUND IN HIS BLOOD. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_DEN89DTI02.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers