Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On August 6, 1998, approximately 0750 mountain daylight time, a Cessna T210N, N2WF, was destroyed when it impacted the ground while maneuvering at approximately 300 feet agl near Creede, Colorado. The private pilot and his three passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was owned/operated by Ford Farms, Inc., under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local flight which originated from Center, Colorado, approximately 25 minutes before the accident. No flight plan had been filed.

According to family members, the pilot, his son, and the pilot's two brothers departed Center, Colorado, en route to the Pearl Lakes Trout Club (elevation 10,400 feet), where several of the family members owned fishing cabins. They stated that they believed the intention of the flight was to spread the cremation ashes of their mother/grandmother who had been killed six weeks earlier in an automobile accident. Family members reported that the brothers, in June, 1995, had scattered the cremation ashes of their father over the same location near the family's cabins.

According to one witness, the airplane entered the north to south oriented valley of Pearl Lakes from the south on the east side of the valley at approximately 1,000 feet above the ground. He stated that the aircraft turned left, then flew south along the west side of the valley. It then turned east along the south side of the Pearl Lakes property line, then turned north/northeast, at which time he temporarily lost sight of the aircraft. When it came into view again, the aircraft "was nose down about 20 degrees and went into [a] spin (counter-clockwise) 2 1/4 turns - banked to [the] left plus or minus 10 degrees [and] crashed into trees." He stated that the aircraft appeared to be 400 to 500 feet above the ground when it began to spin, and the spin lasted approximately 4 to 5 seconds. He further stated that a "fuel vapor cloud appeared below the [impact] site 40 to 50 yards to the west [of his location]." He said that there was a "strong odor of gasoline in the air."

Another witness was walking near the northern end of Pearl Lakes and observed the aircraft pass overhead. She watched the aircraft head west, then heard it down at the south end of the valley. When she made contact with the airplane the second time, it was heading north adjacent to the house owned by Douglas Ford, one of the pilot's brothers (the front seat passenger in the airplane), as it was "nose diving in spirals with the spruce trees as a background."

Another witness who was observing the aircraft from her family's cabin approximately 600 feet north of the accident site stated that she saw a "cloud of something" pass behind the airplane moments before it "spun to the ground."

The airplane came to rest in heavily wooded terrain which slopped approximately 20 to 30 degrees down towards the west.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The pilot began flying in 197