Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn February 21, 2022, at 1133 mountain daylight time, a Raytheon Aircraft Company Hawker 800XP airplane, N99AP, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (ASE), Aspen, Colorado. The two pilots and four passengers were not injured. The airplane was being operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 business flight.
According to the flight crew reports and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) audio, prior to departure, the airplane and runway were clear of any contaminants, and all pre-takeoff checks were normal. At 1102:46, the airplane was cleared to taxi to runway 33 with automatic terminal information service (ATIS) information Bravo. The ATIS indicated that the wind was from 170° at 18 knots (kts) and gusting to 30 kts. During taxi, the flight crew changed the takeoff flaps from 0° to 15° to reduce the takeoff length by 800 ft per the crew’s Aircraft Performance Group calculations, and the first officer entered the new airspeeds in the flight management system.
About 1119, the ASE air traffic control (ATC) tower controller informed the flight crew the takeoff would be delayed due to arriving traffic. At 1131:54, the controller provided the takeoff clearance for runway 33 and reported the wind was from 160° at 16 kts, gusting to 25 kts. In addition, the controller provided the “instantaneous” wind, which was from 180° at 10 kts. The captain reported that “at takeoff clearance, constant winds were reported by tower at [180° at 10 kts] which was within aircraft maximum tailwind takeoff limitation.”
According to CVR audio, the takeoff was initiated at 1132:26. The captain performed a static takeoff, and the first officer made all the callouts: airspeed alive, 80 kts, takeoff decision speed (V1) at 111 kts, and rotate (VR) at 121 kts. The captain reported that, at VR, he applied back pressure on the yoke; however, the airplane would not become airborne. The captain reported, “the yoke did not have any air resistance or any pressure on it as we experience normally in Hawkers (the weight and pressure on the yoke felt the same as though…the airplane was stationary on [the] ground).”
After a few seconds without any indication the airplane would take off, the captain called for and performed an aborted takeoff by reducing the engines to idle, deploying the thrust reversers, and applying the brakes. The airplane subsequently departed the end of the runway into the snow (see figure 1). The captain secured the airplane and assisted in the evacuation of the passengers.

Figure 1. Accident airplane following runway excursion (Source: ASE airport operations) AIRCRAFT INFORMATIONAccording to the airplane flight manual, the maximum tailwind component for takeoff and landing is 10 knots.
According to the operator, at takeoff, the airplane’s weight was 23,916 pounds (lbs), and the location of the center of gravity (C.G.) was -.02 inches from datum or 17.93% mean aerodynamic chord. T