Ryan NAVION N4276K

Summary

On 15 March 2013 at about 20:08 local time, a Ryan NAVION registered N4276K was involved in an accident near Broomfield, Colorado, United States. 4 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

15 March 2013 at 20:08

Classification

Accident

Location

Broomfield, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Rocky Mountain Metropolitan (BJC)

Coordinates

39.9089, -105.1172

Aircraft

Ryan NAVION

Registration

N4276K

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Denver → Albuquerque

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN13LA199

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and decision to take off at a high density altitude and in gusting wind conditions.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

After takeoff from a 9,000-foot runway, the pilot retracted the landing gear. Shortly thereafter, the airspeed dropped, followed by an excessive descent rate. The pilot lowered the landing gear and landed the airplane on the runway before it departed the runway and the nose gear collapsed. The pilot attributed the excessive descent rate to wind shear. The weather information obtained by the pilot before the flight indicated gusting, variable, and turbulent wind conditions at a high density altitude, so the pilot should have been aware that conditions were favorable for wind shear. Further, the pilot should have applied a wind/gust correction factor to the takeoff speed to maintain a safe airspeed margin and to maintain airplane climb performance. The airplane's climb performance was further degraded by the effects of density altitude and the overweight condition of the airplane due to the pilot's erroneous weight and balance calculations.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.