Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On September 14, 2002, at 0955 mountain daylight time, a Beech B19, N5119R, owned and operated by Sid Hall Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Southern Aircraft Sales of Albany, Georgia, was destroyed when it impacted terrain and burned 2 miles north of Delta, Colorado. The private pilot, the sole occupant aboard, was fatally injured. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed for the ferry flight being operated under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated at Delta at 0953, and was en route to Albany with unknown intermediate stops.

The airplane had recently undergone a pre-purchase annual inspection and, according to Sid Hall Enterprises, they had purchased the airplane from a private individual in Delta. The pilot, whom they had used on previous occasions, intended to ferry it to Albany to accumulate flight time. According to the airport manager, the previous owner flew the airplane the day before the accident. After the uneventful flight, the airplane was serviced with 31.1 gallons of 100-octane low lead aviation grade gasoline. This filled it to its 60-gallon capacity. The next morning, the pilot --- carrying a flight bag and an overnight kit --- arrived at the airport and boarded the airplane. There is no record of the pilot obtaining a weather briefing or filing a flight plan. Witnesses said the pilot "seemed to be in a hurry" and made a "quick" preflight inspection. After starting the engine, the pilot taxied to the end of runway 03 and performed the pretakeoff checks. The airport manager said the magneto checks sounded normal, but the checks were brief --- "He didn't even have adequate oil temps yet." As soon as the pilot added takeoff power, the airport manager "knew something was wrong." The engine "began to pop," "stutter," and "sputter," and "continued to do so the entire length of the runway. The engine was "producing less than full power, about 1,700 to 1,800 rpm, like he had a fuel problem, water in the fuel, or a leaning problem," and the airplane was "not accelerating." The airport manager kept thinking to himself, "Abort, abort!" The airplane lifted off near the end of the 5,600-foot runway (1.5 percent uphill grade), flew in ground effect and barely cleared sagebrush and a barbed wire perimeter fence. The left wing dipped and the airplane disappeared below the mesa and into a valley. Shortly thereafter, a plume of smoke was observed.

A flight student said he overheard the pilot tell the airport manager that "he had never flown in the mountains before." He watched the pilot start the engine, taxi to the end of runway 03, and perform "a short run up, only checking the magnetos." When the pilot applied full power, "I knew that the engine was not running right because of the roughness we heard. We were thinking that he would abort but he kept rolling down the runway.

Another witness at the airport, an accident reconstructionist with the Colorado State Patrol, recalled the airpo