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FTW94LA002

1993-10-03 · WATKINS, Colorado, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport FTG

N16CB has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV7A, built 2018), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL RESULTING IN THE INADVERTENT GROUND LOOP. A FACTOR WAS THE INSTRUCTOR'S FAILURE TO TAKE REMEDIAL ACTION ON A TIMELY MANNER.

Factual narrative

On October 3, 1993, at 1100 mountain daylight time, a Maule M-5-200C, N16CB, was substantially damaged following a loss of control while landing at the Front Range Airport, near Watkins, Colorado. The certified flight instructor and the private pilot receiving instruction were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the instructional flight. According to the operator, during the third landing of the instructional period, the airplane swerved to the right during the landing roll. The pilot elected to abort the landing and applied full power as he applied full left rudder. As soon as he added power, the instructor started to tell the pilot to close the throttle and continue the landing roll. The pilot stated that he reduced the power and then lost control of the airplane, ground looping off the runway. The instructor pilot stated that the pilot failed to relinquish the controls of the airplane. The right main landing gear collapsed, and the right wing sustained structural damage after it dug into the ground. DURING THE THIRD LANDING, THE AIRPLANE SWERVED TO THE RIGHT DURING THE LANDING ROLLOUT. THE PRIVATE PILOT RECEIVING INSTRUCTION ATTEMPTED TO ABORT THE LANDING BY ADDING FULL POWER AND APPLYING FULL LEFT RUDDER. THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT TOLD THE PILOT TO CLOSE THE THROTTLE. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT THE PILOT FAILED TO RELINQUISH THE CONTROLS AND DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WAS LOST. THE PRIVATE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE INSTRUCTOR DID NOT ATTEMPT TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AND ONLY ASKED FOR THE POWER REDUCTION. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1993_FTW94LA002.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 (loss of control). All research papers