Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn May 18, 2016, about 0901 mountain daylight time, a Cessna P210N, N6609P, sustained substantial damage when it impacted a field in a flat spin about 4 miles northeast of Sheridan Lake, Colorado. The pilot sustained fatal injuries. The airplane was registered to and operated by Stubblefield Construction Company under the provisions of the 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, and no flight plan was filed for the flight, which departed at 0645 from Rock Springs-Sweetwater County Airport (RKS), Rock Springs, Wyoming, en route to Wiley Post Airport (PWA), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Earlier that morning, about 0222, the pilot departed Nampa Municipal Airport, Nampa, Idaho, and flew to RKS, where he landed the airplane about 0442. A witness at RKS reported that the pilot had the airplane topped off with 68 gallons of fuel. He reported that the pilot slept in the pilot's lounge for about 1 hour before departing toward PWA.

After departing RKS, radar data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicated that the airplane was flying on a southeast heading at 17,300 ft pressure altitude. About 0800, the pilot established visual flight rules flight following with the Denver, Colorado, Air Route Traffic Control Center, which provided the pilot with the current altimeter setting.

A transcript of the communications between the accident airplane and an air traffic controller indicated that, at 0842:36, the pilot transmitted, "(unintelligible) I'm going down and I'm going down hard."

It became apparent to the controller that the pilot was experiencing some type of distress. The controller attempted to communicate with the pilot, concerned that he was possibly experiencing hypoxia, carbon monoxide exposure, or another medical condition that was affecting his speech and ability to control the airplane. Throughout the remainder of the flight, the controller provided numerous altimeter setting updates in a continued effort to communicate with the pilot; however, the pilot did not acknowledge or reply to numerous controller requests. The controller made numerous recommendations to the pilot to descend to a lower altitude.

At 0846:23, the controller transmitted, "November six six zero nine papa suggest you descend to lower altitude at or below one two thousand uhh sounds like you might have an hypoxic situation."

The recorded radar data indicated that the airplane had maintained a straight-and-level flight track to the southeast at 17,300 ft pressure altitude until 0847. Then, the airplane entered a series of turns, climbs, and descents that ultimately put the airplane on a northerly course.

At 0853:16, the pilot transmitted, "I can show you what a p two ten can do." The radar data indicated that the airplane's altitude was about 11,700 ft pressure altitude at the time of the transmission.

At 0854:05, the pilot transmitted, "(unintell