Accident Case Study: Into Thin Air

Easy mistake to make as flat lander.

Thanks for the video, this should go into Mountain Flying Section of every Ground School.
 
sarangan said:
I am happy to point out that they used a flight path video I created using Google Earth (and they also made the acknowledgement). It comes up at 8:50 into the video.
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I noticed that in the video. Great work! These videos are always very well done.
 
While Density Altitude may be a foreign concept for some new students to grasp, videos like this one hammer home the importance of having at least a fundamental understanding of the many environmental factors which could affect the performance of your aircraft.
 
One thing I continue to wonder: WHY OH WHY would you go to Aspen? I would have headed South back to New York where it’s flat. Maybe weather was a factor down there, I don’t know?
 
Trogdor said:
One thing I continue to wonder: WHY OH WHY would you go to Aspen? I would have headed South back to New York where it’s flat. Maybe weather was a factor down there, I don’t know?
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South back to New York? New York is mostly east, but still quite a ways north.

I'm betting it was a bragging rights thing, something like "I bought my plane in California and stopped in Aspen for lunch on the way back"

The fact is, they could have, and should have, stopped in Eagle or Rifle. Both of those airports have MUCH cheaper fuel, like nearly $2 per gallon. Leaving from Eagle or Rifle also would have put them on a slightly better route to head northeast. Still some high country to go over but a lot more time to get over it, and its easier to see where the passes are.
 
IMO, the fatal factor in this accident is the change of plan from IFR to VFR with out flight planning. In fact, I don't think they did much flight planning at all or they would have known about the departure procedure. This is definitely a situation to request a taxi back to the FBO and reconsider your options. On top of that they were messing around at these altitudes with out oxygen, no thanks.
 
Wagondriver said:
South back to New York? New York is mostly east, but still quite a ways north
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I believe he meant take the southern route around the Rockies through AZ rather than attempting to go direct.

Wagondriver said:
I'm betting it was a bragging rights thing, something like "I bought my plane in California and stopped in Aspen for lunch on the way back"
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100%
 
Wagondriver said:
I'm betting it was a bragging rights thing, something like "I bought my plane in California and stopped in Aspen for lunch on the way back"
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PaulS said:
In fact, I don't think they did much flight planning at all
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Didn't study the departure procedures. Relied on ATC to find which way to go. Likely headed towards the wrong pass than they intended. Made classic flatlander mistakes...:yeahthat::(
 
Trogdor said:
One thing I continue to wonder: WHY OH WHY would you go to Aspen? I would have headed South back to New York where it’s flat. Maybe weather was a factor down there, I don’t know?
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The aircraft owner I would go as far to say he didn't know what he didn't know. He didn't know enough about mountain flying to respect mountain flying. The safety pilot should have had some experience, but as the video says they were unable to determine if he had any in a single engine NA piston aircraft.

I'm not faulting the controller in this, but I have to wonder what, if anything, went through his head as he watched this Bonanza blast off into the valleys like they did.
 
It is not the controller's responsibility to know aircraft performance, nor the best route for the aircraft in question. The controller asked questions of the pilot that, in my opinion, should have gotten the pilot to think about their best course of action.

Aspen has some flight training, but really not that much single engine piston traffic. I fly within 10 miles of there regularly, but have never landed there due to the fees. And, at this time of year it gets a little busy with jet traffic on the weekends. I have listened in when the student pilots are trying to land, jets are coming in pretty rapidly and students get flustered with making 360's. The controllers seems to pick up on the students getting behind the airplane and give them vectors or otherwise try to simplify their work load. But, the controllers know which ones are the students because they took off from ASE.
 
I think the most chilling part was the pilots comment - will take off and figure out from there. I will admit I have taken off more than once with a mentality of let’s go up and figure out a direction of my flight. But those are joy rides from my previous home base with no destination in mind, mostly sunset flights under clear and a million and nothing but corn fields for hundreds of miles in every which direction.

May be he was relying on the right seat ATP to figure things out as they circle, no idea why an ATP would have a similar mindset though.
 
I assumed the guy on the radio was the right seat guy, the ATP.
 
"We can't do 16,000 sir!"

I guess then the plan was to circle the airport and get high enough to proceed. Had they continued to circle they would either have gained the altitude needed, or realized they couldn't do it until the D/A changed. No matter how many times I see this the end don't change. :(
 
I don't understand how you can get yourself into a situation like that, and I hope that never changes.
 
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