Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On June 7, 2004, approximately 1650 mountain daylight time, a Raytheon Aircraft Company A36, N6162E, piloted by a private pilot, was destroyed when it impacted terrain approximately 2 miles south of Gilcrest, Colorado. Visual metrological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. No flight plan had been filed for the local personal flight being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91. The private pilot and the student pilot passenger in the front seat were fatally injured. The rear passenger received serious injuries. The flight departed Vance Brand Airport (2V2), Longmont, Colorado, approximately 1630.

Witnesses driving north on U.S Highway 85 observed the airplane flying low above the ground in a northerly direction. According to one witness, the airplane's wings rocked from side to side and then the airplane pitched up. The airplane's nose dropped and the airplane impacted the terrain in a right wing low attitude. The airplane came to rest in a sod field approximately 1/4 mile east of the highway. One witness exited his vehicle to help those on board the airplane. While approaching the wreckage, he noted a strong odor of fuel.

The owner of Airwest Flight Center in Longmont, Colorado, said he heard a mayday call at the approximate time of the accident. He said he heard, "Mayday, Mayday, Beechcraft N (witness could not recall the N number} east of Longmont, going down, 3 souls on board."

In a hospital interview and subsequent telephone interviews to clarify the submitted written statement, the surviving passenger stated that the flight had departed from Longmont approximately 20 to 30 minutes prior to the accident. They had flown over the pilot's home and were en route to Greeley when the accident occurred. The passenger stated that the front seat passenger, the pilot's daughter, expressed a wish to fly the airplane. She remembered she was "typing in the autopilot," and she recalled the pilot correcting her, "GXY, not GYX," or words to that effect (GXY is the 3-letter designator for the Greeley-Weld County Airport, located about 18 miles north of the accident site). As soon as she disengaged the autopilot, the "airplane shuttered [sic], and a lot of the alarms on the plane started going off." The passenger estimated that they were approximately 500 feet agl and had been attempting to climb. According to the passenger, the pilot "could [not] reach the switch for the gas tanks" so the front seat passenger switched it. The passenger was not sure if they tried to start the engine. She heard the front seat passenger make a mayday call and could not recall anything after the impact.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The pilot held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land rating, which was issued April 27, 2004. The pilot held a third class medical certificate, dated January 9, 2004, with the limitation "must wear corrective lenses." According to the pilot's logbook, he received endorsements for