Midair Boulder, CO

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3 confirmed dead in two plane collision in Boulder County
One plane was found in a field in the area of 95th and Niwot. The second plane was found on the north side of Niwot Road.
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BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — Three people are dead after a midair plane collision in Boulder County on Saturday morning.

According to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office (BCSO), the collision was first reported at 8:54 a.m. Saturday. The Sheriff's Office said three people died as a result of the crash.

One of the planes was found in a field in the 10,000 block of Niwot Rd., while the other aircraft was discovered closer to the 9,700 block of Niwot Rd.

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> Video above: Sky9 footage showing the second downed plane.

In a statement by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), one of the aircraft was a single-engine Cessna 172. The other aircraft type is still unknown. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB) will investigate.

Niwot Road and Highway 287 at Niwot Road are closed as Mountain View Fire Rescue and BCSO investigate the crash. The public is asked to stay away from this area.

None of the deceased have been identified. Any witnesses are asked to call Detective Galloway and leave a voicemail at 303-441-4763 or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Additional information regarding the crash has not been released.

This is a developing situation. 9NEWS has a crew heading to the scene. We will provide more information as it becomes available.

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Access was denied until I moved my VPN from Ireland to LA...
 
PaulS said:
RIP. Mid airs really are one of the biggest dangers flying IMO.
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More so scary if someone without adsb-out isn’t paying attention. I’ve had a few times lately where I changed altitude and direction during a practice approach or had to 360 in the traffic pattern due to oncoming traffic, kind of feels like people don’t look.
 
eman1200 said:
is it even in the top 5 biggest dangers?
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It's one of those things that you can't really troubleshoot after it's happend. Sometimes one of the affected can get down safely but lately that doesn't seem to be happening.
 
mandm said:
More so scary if someone without adsb-out isn’t paying attention. I’ve had a few times lately where I changed altitude and direction during a practice approach or had to 360 in the traffic pattern due to oncoming traffic, kind of feels like people don’t look.
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"See and avoid" is pretty crappy, in my opinion.
 
NJP_MAN said:
It's one of those things that you can't really troubleshoot after it's happend. Sometimes one of the affected can get down safely but lately that doesn't seem to be happening.
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I don’t think that addresses his comment OR mine.
 
eman1200 said:
I don’t think that addresses his comment OR mine.
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The most common causes of accidents are not mid-airs, but, at the same time, most of the common causes are completely preventable with good judgment and airmanship.

edited for clarity
 
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PaulS said:
RIP. Mid airs really are one of the biggest dangers flying IMO.
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Statistically I think they’re about at the bottom of the list. But they’re certainly the most, I dunno what the word is. Most accidents are pilot error. Many, if not most of those errors happen before the plane takes off. Many before the engine is even started. But with a midair, now matter how diligent you are in making sure you, the plane and the weather are suitable for flight and how well you fly the plane, another plane gets you.
 
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eman1200 said:
is it even in the top 5 biggest dangers?
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It feels like it might be this month. But I think even with the apparently large number of them in recent memory, we pilots are still more likely to spin turning final than to hit another plane.
 
eman1200 said:
is it even in the top 5 biggest dangers?
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luvflyin said:
Statistically I think they’re about at the bottom of the list. But they’re certainly the most, I dunno what the word is. Most accidents are pilot error. Many, if not most of those errors happen before the plane takes off. Many before the engine is even started. But with a midair, now matter how diligent you are in making sure you, the plane and the weather are suitable for flight, another plane gets you.
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Fortunately mid airs are not as frequent as they could be. BUT, think about it, we have a whole system, a morass of rules, fundamental training that stresses how dangerous it can be, colliding with another plane, at least my training was like that. We have ATC, whose main job is to prevent airplanes from colliding, we have procedures, specialized airspace, altitude rules and recommendations all designed to prevent midair collisions.

I have about 800 hours now of flying, all as a private pilot. I have had 5 instances off the top of my head where if I didn't react I would have had a mid - air. One was a very close call near a VOR with a plane I'm convinced did not see me. One during my initial training with my instructor, he was yelling at me over a radio call I screwed up. It was quite a little tantrum, I only had about 7 hours, I'll have to admit, I am very capable of getting this type of reaction out of people, but this was underserved. And it was uncharacteristic of him. Anyway, we were inside a busy delta and he wasn't looking outside. So I focused outside while he droned on. I saw a little spot that wasn't moving. I focused on it, and it was growing. So while he was droning I yelled "traffic, traffic, traffic", he stopped, surprised, looked up and said " where?", I pointed it out, he took the controls, turned us, a Mooney, going faster than I had ever seen a small airplane go zipped by very close to us. He never moved and never saw us. My instructor said, "That was close, I guess you made up for that radio call." I told him, "don't you ever talk to me like that again."

Needless to say, that incident gave me huge respect for other airplanes and avoiding them. I fly in a pretty busy area, I get flight following for most flights. I get turned about every other flight for traffic avoidance.

I've run into a few pilots over the years who never worry about traffic. That's scary IMO.

Fortunately most pilots are on the ball and mid-airs are relatively rare. But the potential is always there. Never let down your guard.
 
More likely a high wing - low wing conflict, but the C172 looks like a direct hit. Keep eyes out and all the equipment and radios aren’t a replacement for scanning and situational awareness.
 
Comment about base to final stalls: data is that most dangerous is takeoff departure stalls. Not to dismiss paying attention on baseleg to final. Or that mid-airs aren’t in the top ten causes of accidents. 8D342EAD-7FAF-4C54-A69D-335A3A316C5A.pngg
 
Fearless Tower said:
Thought ADS-B was supposed to solve that…
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When used in combination with proper vigilence ADS-B can be very helpful. There is only one time I came close to an airplane that got me worried. Ironically, that happened when I was messing around with my tablet trying to get the ADS-B to work. My peripheral vision caught a fast moving object across my windshield. It was close enough for me to see that the other pilot was under the hood. Had we been on a collision course, I would not have had time to react. I reacted only after they were well out of my way. I don't believe they even saw me because I saw no reaction from them. I was freaked out. Bad stuff can happen if you are not looking.
 
skyking3286 said:
…data is that most dangerous is takeoff departure stalls...
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Those are the ones that really, truly, astound me. Unless that’s just a different way to classify loss of directional control that eventually results in a stall during takeoff. Even that astounds me as the leading contributor to fatal incidents and accidents.
 
Departure stalls could also include the return to runway decisions I’m assuming, plus STOL stuff. As far as ADS-B / gadget distractions with fatal mid-airs, unless they had a GoPro in the cockpit we will never know.
 
TCABM said:
Those are the ones that really, truly, astound me. Unless that’s just a different way to classify loss of directional control that eventually results in a stall during takeoff. Even that astounds me as the leading contributor to fatal incidents and accidents.
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Shorter runways and people pulling too hard in an attempt to clear obstacles? Just a guess.

Edit - I also read about someone who rented a 172 who put flaps down for departure because that was the procedure in whatever other airframe he was familiar with, and was unable to get enough climb rate and crashed fatally. Maybe lack of checklist adherence causes these types of crashes.
 
Midairs are certainly not the most common, but when they happen, they are usually fatal.

That’s why the thought of midairs bother me. You can train for engine failure, even fire. Ain’t no way to train for what to do after a collision. That mitigation has to occur before it happens.

One of the reasons I hate flying in Florida. It’s a freaking zoo and it seems half of the pilots down there have their heads buried in the cockpit.
 
Baked Potato said:
Shorter runways and people pulling too hard in an attempt to clear obstacles? Just a guess.

Edit - I also read about someone who rented a 172 who put flaps down for departure because that was the procedure in whatever other airframe he was familiar with, and was unable to get enough climb rate and crashed fatally. Maybe lack of checklist adherence causes these types of crashes.
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Here’s a video about either that crash or one just like it. Departure stalls include the kind that follow when you take off too heavy at a high density altitude and try to pull back to clear terrain, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re a top killer of us pilots.

 
iamtheari said:
Here’s a video about either that crash or one just like it. Departure stalls include the kind that follow when you take off too heavy at a high density altitude and try to pull back to clear terrain, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re a top killer of us pilots.

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I was the pathologist on that one (or I should say, those 4). The really interesting part? I've also flown that plane before.
 
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