Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On August 5, 1997, at 1058 mountain daylight time, a Beech 58P, N258W, was destroyed when it collided with terrain during a missed approach at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The private pilot and passenger were fatally injured. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed, and an IFR flight plan had been filed for the business flight being conducted under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated at Broomfield, Colorado, at 1027.

At 0836, the pilot contacted the Denver Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) and requested "an IFR briefing, BJC (Broomfield-Jefferson County Airport) to Colorado Springs." The pilot was provided a standard briefing. He then filed an IFR flight plan, indicating his airplane was equipped with RNAV (area navigation) and a transponder with altitude encoding capability. His proposed takeoff time was 1000, and he indicated that he planned to fly at 200 KTAS (knots true airspeed) at 10,000 feet to Colorado Springs via V-81. He estimated his time en route to be 30 minutes, and that he had 5 hours of fuel on board. The pilot also filed an IFR flight plan for his return trip to Broomfield. The conversation terminated at 0844.

At 1017, the pilot contacted BJC ground control and was issued his IFR clearance to Colorado Springs (COS). The pilot failed to obtain a taxi clearance and ground control advised him of the mistake when they observed him taxiing on taxiway A. He was subsequently cleared to continue taxiing to runway 29R. At 1027, the pilot was cleared for takeoff. At 1030, the pilot contacted Denver departure control and was given radar vectors to join V-81. At 1047, the pilot contacted COS approach control and was vectored to join the runway 17L localizer and was advised to expect the ILS DME (instrument landing system/distance measuring equipment) approach to runway 17L. He was also advised that the runway visual range (RVR) was 4,000 feet (about 3/4-mile visibility). In his written statement, the controller said the airplane "flew what appeared to be a normal ILS."

At 1054, the pilot contacted COS tower. At 1056:27, after observing the target moving away from the localizer in a southeast direction, the local controller asked the pilot, "Are you showing yourself on the localizer? I show you east of it, proceeding away." The pilot concurred and when asked what his intentions were, he replied: "Do a missed approach." The pilot was instructed to turn left to a heading of 090 degrees and climb and maintain 9,000 feet. At 1056:43, after noting the airplane was at an encoded altitude of 8,000, the local controller instructed the pilot to "start your climb to niner thousand (feet). You're well below the minimum vectoring altitude in that area." The pilot acknowledged.

At 1057:08, the local controller instructed the pilot of N58LC, a Cessna 501 Citation jet that was following N258W, to "climb and maintain one zero thousand. Start the climb now. Traffic twelve o'clock, two miles.