Plane Crash - Colorado Ski area on I-70

I was thinking the exact same thing. No plane has any business flying up the Clear Creek Canyon (I-70) unless they are at, I don't know, 20,000 feet?

-F

 

20,000 feet may be a personal minimum, but these decisions should not be arbitrary. Pilots are provided with all the data needed to flight plan appropriately. Detailed operating handbooks for the airplane, engine, and avionics, navigation charts, and weather briefings are all key tools. This is long, please bear with me...

If I were planning that flight, I would have done a few things to make my own personal go, no-go decision. For example the VFR sectional chart for the crash area depicts the IFR airways in that area (within 5-7 miles on either side of Loveland) which show, if you look them up on the IFR chart, a Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA - 2000 ft obstruction clearance in the mountains) of 16,500 feet. I know from the NTSB report that the airplane in question was a 1964 PA28-235. That airplane has a service ceiling of only 14,500 feet, which would be the first red flag.

The next red flag for me is that Loveland is shown on the chart at 11,990 feet. That is only 2510 feet below the service ceiling of the '64 PA28-235. Not a very good margin of safety, especially in summer when climb performance would be anemic - 100-200 feet per minute at that high altitude in that airplane. Legal minimums for flying over I70 (technically a structure) in the airspace (G) over that area would be 500 feet. That puts me within 2000 feet of the service ceiling, but now I need to consider the weather before launching on that flight.

Mountain flying means dealing with high winds, vicious updrafts and downdrafts - uncontrollable thermals, and turbulence that can knock your teeth loose. And the most accurate weather briefing you get may not predict any of these conditions along your route no matter what time of day or night you make your trip. And pilot reports, though helpful, are no guarantee that you will find the same conditions when you get there. So given the performance characteristics of the airplane, the high terrain, and the uncertainties of weather, I would have looked at a different route.

I don't in any way mean to diminish this tragedy, or to make assumptions about what this pilot did or did not do. To a pilot, every accident is an opportunity to learn, and to re-evaluate skills and decision making processes. Flying is a data driven endeavor.

 

I'll be flying that route tomorrow in my underpowered single engine death trap from Atlanta to Eagle. I plan on crossing the ridge at 16k (as I've done numerous times) unless the winds are howling and if so I'll be higher.

 

The saddest thing about this is the 6y/o who's life was going to be cut short already. Sad he didn't at least make it till his teens.