The Unseen: Dark of Night Is No Time to Improvise

NTSB investigation reveals spatial disorientation, but the full story offers deeper insights into a tragic accident.

Peter Garrison

Wednesday, October 08, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

In daylight, the pilot would probably not have started the turn so early and so close to the ground...in pitch darkness, he had no idea where the ground was. [Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

A Cherokee 140 crashed at night shortly after takeoff from Canyonlands Regional Airport in October 2023, killing all four family members aboard.
The NTSB attributed the accident to spatial disorientation due to the pilot's loss of visual reference to the horizon in the dark.
Contributing factors included the pilot's choice not to activate runway lights, an immediate and excessively steep turn after liftoff that the aircraft (at high density altitude) couldn't sustain, and the likely failure to monitor instruments in the pitch darkness.

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Moab, utah lies nestled in a bend in the Colorado River, a green dot in a Martian landscape of ochre plains and low rocky outcrops that resemble the protruding vertebrae of buried monsters.

Sixteen miles northwest of Moab is Canyonlands Regional Airport (KCYN). Its runway, 100 feet wide and 7,360 feet long, is oriented 03/21. All of the airport’s buildings are at its north end, alongside the highway that leads to Moab.