Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On August 23, 1995, approximately 1017 mountain daylight time (MDT), a Mooney M20F, N3768N, was destroyed when it impacted terrain while maneuvering 7 miles southeast of Red Cliff, Colorado. The two commercial pilots were fatally injured. The flight, conducted under Title 14 CFR Part 91, originated at Watkins, Colorado, approximately 0800 MDT. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time, and no flight plan was filed for the personal flight.

According to the airplane operator, the pilots were employed by the operator as flight instructors. They had reserved the airplane the day before the accident, and indicated they were going to make a local flight. According to the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), however, the pilots told the airport receptionist they were planning to fly in the mountains, with possible landings at Eagle and Aspen, Colorado, and would return about 1300. CAP said this information was corroborated by the pilot's girl friend. When the pilots failed to return, an ALNOT (alert notice) was issued.

The fixed base operator at Leadville, Colorado, reported N3768N landed at the airport at 0930 MDT. She said as the airplane taxied towards the ramp, the engine quit and she suspected the pilot had not leaned the fuel mixture for the airport's high elevation (Leadville Airport is 9,927 feet above mean sea level).

She said the pilot restarted the engine and taxied the airplane up to the operations office. The right seat occupant got out and came into the office while the other pilot remained in the airplane with its engine running. He asked for and was given two certificates to indicate the pilots had landed at North America's highest airport. He returned to the airplane and it departed at 0945 MDT.

Three witnesses reported seeing an airplane matching the description of N3768N. One, a patrolling Eagle County sheriff's deputy (who is also a commercial pilot), said he saw a red and white Mooney pass over Avon, Colorado, approximately 0945, flying along I-70 in a southeast direction towards Minturn, Colorado. He estimated its altitude to be between 600 and 700 feet, "low enough that I was able to see that the cowl flaps were open," he reported. Two other witnesses, both U.S. Forest Service employees taking water samples 1 mile south of Red Cliff, Colorado, observed a "low wing, single engine airplane with a retractable landing gear, red and white in color," pass over them at an estimated altitude of 300 feet. They said the airplane banked left at Camp Hale and disappeared from view, flying in a direction towards Pearl Creek. The wreckage was located the following afternoon by a Civil Air Patrol search plane in the Pearl Creek drainage at about the 10,800-foot level.

CREW INFORMATION

The operator said that if he had known the pilots were planning to fly in the mountains, he would not have authorized the flight because their mountain flying experience was extremely limited. Examination of the pilots' log