Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On August 29, 1998, approximately 1555 mountain daylight time, a Mooney M20F, N377X, was destroyed following impact with terrain while turning onto the base leg in the traffic pattern at Fort Collins Downtown Airpark, Fort Collins, Colorado. The commercial pilot and his pilot-rated passenger were fatally injured. The airplane was owned/operated by the pilot under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal cross-country flight which originated from Chadron, Nebraska, approximately 70 minutes before the accident. No flight plan had been filed.

According to witnesses, the pilot had left that morning to visit relatives at several locations, and the last city was Chadron, Nebraska. According to a witness in Chadron, the pilot had his fuel tanks "topped-off" with 100LL (14 gallons) before his departure back to Fort Collins (his homeport airport for the last 30 years).

Two witnesses flying in the traffic pattern for runway 11 (elevation 4,935 feet, density altitude 7,844 feet) reported hearing a Mooney calling for Fort Collins airport advisories twice, but gave no position report (Fort Collins unicom did not respond). The two witnesses were flying on downwind in a Piper Cub at approximately 650 feet agl when they observed a Mooney "over the Budweiser brewery flying directly at them at a high rate of speed with the [landing] gear up." The one witness in the back seat of the Piper Cub reported that the airplane entered the traffic pattern behind them and approximately 200 feet below them. This witness performed a right 360 degree turn and rejoined the downwind leg behind the Mooney. The two witnesses reported that they were flying a "tight pattern suitable for the Cub, and the Mooney was flying at approximately the same distance from the runway." Another witness described the down wind leg of the Mooney as "unusually close," and yet another witness described the down wind leg as "[it] appeared to be about 50% closer to the runway than what I consider to be normal." This last witness reported that the landing gear was down when he saw the Mooney on down wind; he could not remember if any wing flaps had been extended.

The back seat witness in the Piper Cub reported seeing the Mooney "[do] what appeared to be a kind of wing-over maneuver and [I] thought the Mooney pilot was perhaps hotdogging." He further observed that "then I realized how low it was and how nose-down the attitude was. A fraction of a second later, it impacted in this nose-low attitude, with the left wing slightly lower." Another witness on the ground (standing in front of a hangar located approximately 800 feet from the approach end to runway 11) observed the airplane as it "turned left to the base leg of an approach to runway 11, and quickly increased the bank so that in less than five seconds I could see a full plan view of the airplane at an altitude of approximately 200 feet." The witness on the ground further