Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On July 31, 1997, at 1420 mountain daylight time (mdt), a Lancair 320 homebuilt experimental aircraft, N360GB, collided with terrain near Dillon, Colorado, in a canyon at 12,200 feet above mean sea level (msl). The private pilot and his passenger received fatal injuries and the aircraft was destroyed. The flight was operating under Title 14 CFR Part 91 and no flight plan was filed for this personal flight which departed Concord, California, at 0700 mdt. According to a fuel slip found in the wreckage, a fuel stop was made at Richfield, Utah, at 1059 mdt where the pilot purchased 22.2 gallons of 100 LL aviation grade fuel. Any other stops are unknown, and the reported destination, according to the pilot's ex wife, was Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Weather in the area at the time of the accident was instrument meteorological conditions.

According to witnesses, the aircraft was observed circling over Dillon, Colorado, and then proceeding east over interstate highway 70. Approximately 8 miles east of Dillon, the interstate highway goes through Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel under the Continental Divide. The tunnel is 1.7 miles in length and the west portal is 11,000 feet msl. The tunnel supervisor and a highway engineer saw the aircraft pass overhead approximately 200 feet above ground level. According to these witnesses, the aircraft was in-and-out of the cloud base and there was moderate rain. They reported the aircraft was in a climb, and turned north up a side canyon where it disappeared into clouds which reached the surface. They said that shortly after the aircraft disappeared, they could no longer hear engine noise, but heard no other sounds.

Later in the day, an emergency locator transmission was picked up by satellite, and after localization and confirmation, a search was started by the Summit County Sheriff's Department. The aircraft was found by searchers, based on emergency locator transmissions, at 1030 mountain daylight time on August 1, 1997.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

According to FAA records, the pilot held a Private Pilot Certificate number 152445381, issued May 7, 1974. He had a single engine land rating and did not hold an instrument rating. The only pilot log found was in the wreckage. The log start date was May 1974, and provided information that the pilot received his certificate rating ride in a Cessna 150 aircraft. The log documented that the majority of his flying was conducted in Cessna 140, 150 and 172 aircraft until November 1984, when he started flying a Stinson 108. Flight in the Stinson was the only flight time logged until July of 1993, when the pilot flew one flight in a Citabria, two flights in a Piper Arrow, and one flight in a Glassaire. On July 27, 1993, the pilot first recorded flight time in the accident aircraft and logged 7 flights through April 3, 1994. Entries in the log from that date are general in nature and do not provide specific dates or flight time until an entry made in May