Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On December 3, 2011, about 1335 mountain standard time (MST), a Socata TB21 airplane, N25153, collided with terrain near Silverton, Colorado. The non-instrument rated private pilot and three passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by a private individual under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed and a flight plan had not been filed for the cross-country flight. The flight had departed the Animas Air Park Airport (00C), Durango, Colorado, at 1319 and was en route to the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (ASE), Aspen, Colorado.

A review of air traffic control (ATC) recordings revealed that the pilot contacted ATC while at flight level 200 (about 20,000 feet) and 12 miles southeast of Telluride, Colorado. The pilot requested visual flight rules (VFR) flight following to ASE, and reported that he could not descend below his altitude and maintain VFR. Moments later, the airplane disappeared from radar and contact with the pilot was lost. There were no reported distress calls from the pilot.

There were numerous people in and near the town of Silverton who reported hearing the airplane; however, there were no reports of anyone seeing the airplane before impact. The witnesses described the weather as snowing with poor visibility. One witness reported that while cross-country skiing, he heard the airplane very clearly directly above him. The witness said it sounded like the airplane was doing aerobatics or tricks, and that it sounded like the pilot was having a hard time figuring out where he was going.

Another witness, located about a mile from the crash site, reported hearing the airplane overhead. She stated that the airplane sounded like it was racing down through the sky, and then back up very fast, then back down again. The engine volume varied as if the airplane was changing elevation very fast. She thought someone was “up there fooling around.” The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) asked her if she had ever heard an airplane performing aerobatics before. She responded, “Yes, on TV, and that is what it sounded like.”

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The pilot, age 59, held a private pilot certificate for airplane single engine land. He was issued a third class medical on October 4, 2011, with the restriction to have glasses for near vision. A review of the pilot’s log book revealed that the pilot had accrued 593.5 hours total time, with 217.4 hours in the accident airplane. The pilot was not instrument rated and had only logged 4.4 hours of simulated instrument time, the last of which was recorded on August 21, 2001. The pilot’s log book did not record any recent instrument flight training. The pilot’s last flight review was flown on July 11, 2011, in the accident airplane.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The accident airplane was a Socata TB21, was a low wing, four-place airplane