Missing flight carrying Texas family...

That's a sad loss. They didn't make it very far from Steamboat.
 
That last link reported the ELT did not go off. That would have sped up the search.

A beautiful family...

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I saw where he was a lifetime member of the EAA and of the Texas Cowboys Alumni Association.
 
They just found it - the crash site isn't very far from where I live, a matter of miles. The weather here has been absolutely awful over the last several days. High winds, rain, snow, ice, sleet, lightning, you name it. It's all over the news here.
 
I really feel for the rescuers / searchers / recovery folks. They never get enough credit for the tough work they do. Recovering bodies is never fun. Recovering bodies of children must be incredibly heart wrenching.
 
David and a pilot from another board confirm that the weather in the area hasn't been fit for flying for several day. They've been having "upslope storms".

Tragic? Sad? Yeah. But only for the three innocent family members.

The pilot on the other hand put another bad mark on GA and makes us all look like idiots.

"There is no level of skill so high that it cannot be overcome by sufficiently poor judgment." Bruce Landsberg

If you want to kill yourself, fine. Just don't take innocent people with you.

Events like this should upset us all.
 
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timwinters said:
David and a pilot from another board confirm that the weather in the area hasn't been fit for flying for several day. They've been having "upslope storms".

....
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I'll also add that the terrain where this crash took place is rugged. 14,000' peaks in all directions; the mountain passes are about 11-12,000'.

It's about a mile into Park County (setting of South Park the tv show), which is a pretty remote place to begin with, not many roads. Crash site is somewhere around 12,000', making it even harder to get to by ground. To top it off, the mountains are covered in fresh snow right now, apparently up to 6". Thus the delay in finding the crash.

When it comes to weather, you never know what you'll get. Whenever I'm up there, I'm ready for anything - including snow in August.
 
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With the weather as bad as it was I wonder why he launched at all. One of the articles said he flew to Steamboat pretty regularly. I am at a loss, why anyone would fly in those mountains in those conditions.
 
Especially why he launched without filing IFR with bad weather. It's been all over the news here since he was from Houston. They said that he was flying a rented 182... anyone know the tail #? I didn't see the one from my flight school on the flight line when I flew on Friday... I guess I could just call.
 
Anthony said:
With the weather as bad as it was I wonder why he launched at all. One of the articles said he flew to Steamboat pretty regularly. I am at a loss, why anyone would fly in those mountains in those conditions.
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The only thing I can guess is that maybe, from looking at the radar, it started to look like it was clearing. But, radar isn't always accurate in the mountains and, even if it is, conditions can rapidly change from range to range....
 
t0r0nad0 said:
Especially why he launched without filing IFR with bad weather.
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You don't fly IFR in those mountains, especially in a non-turboed, non KI airplane. There was also an Airmet for icing conditions.

It's been all over the news here since he was from Houston. They said that he was flying a rented 182... anyone know the tail #? I didn't see the one from my flight school on the flight line when I flew on Friday... I guess I could just call.
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He owned the aircraft, but had it on leaseback at his FBO.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
They said that he was flying a rented 182... anyone know the tail #? I didn't see the one from my flight school on the flight line when I flew on Friday... I guess I could just call.
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IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 487TC Make/Model: C182 Description: 182, Skylane
Date: 08/17/2008 Time: 1937

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
City: BRECKENRIDGE State: CO Country: US

DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, THE FOUR PERSONS ON BOARD WERE
FATALLY INJURED, AIRCRAFT WAS THE SUBJECT OF AN ALERT NOTICE, WRECKAGE
LOCATED NEAR BRECKENRIDGE, CO

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 4
# Crew: 1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 3 Fat: 3 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: OTHER


FAA FSDO: DENVER, CO (NM03) Entry date: 08/18/2008

Just out of curiosity I looked at the route on a map. There is a significant range between Breckenridge and Jefferson in fact that is the Continental Divide, and the mountain where they located the crash is 13,370' high.
 
OMG... 487TC is the 182 from my school. :(

It was a newer model, with a G1000. Even more surprising, since he would have had a terrain database available to him. May he and his family RIP.

EDIT: Until pretty recently, it belonged to a different gentleman who leased it back to the school. The owner wanted to sell it, so the flight school owner got a few people who regularly flew it together to form a partnership to purchase it and lease it back. I guess he was one of the partners.
 
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I've flown that route a few times. It is strictly a VFR corridor for GA aircraft. The only thing I would go in there with IFR was a 210 with icing and a turbo. Even then, I'd be scared. He tried to get out and stay VMC because the MEAs in that area are way up there, where the ice likely is.

There are ski resorts in all directions, and the reason is because they get the rough weather in that location. I've done a similar departure, but went almost true west, all the way to Rangely, then turn south to Grand Junction. It adds a lot to the trip to TX, but you've then got lower altitude to your west all the way south.

Very sad, and so avoidable. We've got to stop this kind of decision making idiocy.
 
The whole thing is shocking. The wx was awful out there (I was camping in the mountains the day of the accident, not too far from the accident site), and of course, I'm always thinking about flying. There's no way I would have flown that day in a 182.

It totally sucks that this happened, but really, what was that guy thinking?!!!!
 
smigaldi said:
I don't know but do you think it was a little get there itis along with an attitude of 'my panel will protect me' at work? I don't think we will ever really know.
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I think you're probably on the right track there Scott. I didn't know the guy, so I don't know about any of his attitudes, but it sounds to me like he was going to rely on the Nexrad and Terrain on the G1000 to try to pick his way across the mountains. I have a couple of guesses as to what happened - these are pure speculation and are not intended to pass judgement on the pilot, but rather to try to learn from this tragic and unfortunate situation.

1) Could be that he tried to climb to 14,000' to clear the peak, but iced up, stalled, and spun in.

2) Perhaps he a) didn't have O2, b) the O2 ran out, or c) the O2 system failed and they were all unconscious and flew into the side of the mountain. This is actually a bit more comforting as they probably didn't see it coming.

Any other thoughts?

P.S. It's kind of surprising to me how close to home this is actually hitting with me. While I didn't know the victim personally, the plane came from the FBO I fly out of - I taxied past it on just about every flight I've ever taken. It's kind of a wake-up call... Has anyone else experienced something similar with someone they didn't know, but a plane that they did?
 
yeah, I used to work at a flight school (wings aloft at KBFI), and one day 4 people from Europe came and checked out in our two 182s for a two week adventure in Alaska.

Well, one of them botched a landing, collapsed the gear, and totaled one of the 182s. Thank god no one was hurt, but it was still surreal to not see that plane around anymore. Really dug a hole in me.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
Has anyone else experienced something similar with someone they didn't know, but a plane that they did?
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The plane I soled in and another plane that I flew many times both crashed in England with fatalities in both cases.

I think it strange but it does not bother me as much as the accident where my CFI was killed. I knew the plane and of course him. We were to fly together the night of his fatal accident.
 
What a terrible story. Look at those beautiful children.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
...

P.S. It's kind of surprising to me how close to home this is actually hitting with me. While I didn't know the victim personally, the plane came from the FBO I fly out of - I taxied past it on just about every flight I've ever taken. It's kind of a wake-up call... Has anyone else experienced something similar with someone they didn't know, but a plane that they did?
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Yes, PJ- in Colorado, too.

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9672&highlight=plane+missing

This Deb was my favorite club plane, and I had flown it to Gaston's twice. If you run a Flightaware on it, the last recorded flight was Tommy (my son) and me flying AUS-ADS. She was a sweet plane.

I had heard the pilot was a good guy and a good pilot, but I did not know him personally.

Niner Three Juliet was our magic carpet for many happy adventures.

It was spooky seeing the two cars parked in the hangar for a week or so after the crash.

So yes, I know what you mean, and it is not a pleasant feeling.
 
Hate to speculate. ANYTHING could have happened. With that said, I wonder if he took a wrong turn up that valley after Breckenridge. It's a short-cut, for sure, to fly between Mt. Guyot (where they were found at the 11,400' level, from what I've read) and Bald Mountain through French Pass.... but from Breckenridge it's safer and a much wider valley to just continue to follow Hwy 9 south into the high plains. Why'd he hang a left into that narrow twisty canyon? <-- click for map
 
This is what Colorado looks like when there is upslope weather on the east side:

We departed westbound from Tellluride, AWAY from the weather, to break out on top, and then headed east. The Look/See was from the TOP.

Note the CLEAR ICE on the windscreen which had been sublimating for some time before I had enough attention to work a camera.

In a NA C812, the glass panel will not protect you. You need to be able to climb >1000 fpm in the ICE to do this flight.
 

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I'm pretty sure he was trying for Hoosier pass. It's a decent way to go mainly because it is very straight, and you can see the open valley of Fairplay beyond Hoosier pass. I'm guessing too that he got turned around near Breckenridge and went up the wrong canyon. I'm also guessing that there was a pretty strong easterly wind that was pushing him that way, and the DG setting might have looked wrong for a heading near 170 deg true from Dillon res.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
P.S. It's kind of surprising to me how close to home this is actually hitting with me. While I didn't know the victim personally, the plane came from the FBO I fly out of - I taxied past it on just about every flight I've ever taken. It's kind of a wake-up call... Has anyone else experienced something similar with someone they didn't know, but a plane that they did?
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PJ,

Not only planes I "know" but planes I've flown. THREE of the planes in my logbook. :(

N105FS, iced up and crashed at DBQ. Three aboard, all walked.
N6454J, takeoff with control lock installed, crashed at MSN. Two aboard, both walked.
N5360F, ran out of fuel and ditched in Lake Michigan. One aboard, never found. :(

Sure makes ya think twice.
 
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