With perilous peaks towering above the runway, pilots have little room for error when they land at the Aspen airport, particularly in the winter when weather can be capricious.
The fiery crash that killed a Mexican pilot and injured two others on Sunday is a jarring reminder of the dangers inherent in flying into the ritzy mountain hamlet.
There have been 32 deaths in plane crashes at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport since 1982, according to National Transportation Safety Board records released Tuesday. There are 11 more fatalities around Aspen when plane accidents beyond the airport are included.
None of the fatal crashes involved commercial airlines.
"Aspen is arguably one of the toughest airports to get into in the country," pilot Josh Ritter, who regularly flew to Aspen when he worked for SkyWest Airlines, told BothMethod.com on Jan. 2. "There's a lot of surrounding terrain, variable winds, and it's a one-way in, one-way out airport. You land one direction and then turn around and take-off the opposite direction."
Fierce, erratic winds were reported around the time of last weekend's fatality and air traffic control recordings show that, just minutes before, other pilots reported both picking up and losing significant speed in the final moments of their descents into Aspen.
One pilot reported losing 10 knots of speed as he made his approach. Minutes later, a different pilot reported gaining 12 knots as he targeted the runway. Another pilot reported gaining 20 knots of speed in the final moments of his descent, according to the air traffic control communications recorded on www.LiveAtc.net.
There could have been a tailwind as strong as 33 knots at the time of the crash that killed Sergio Emilio Carranza Brabata, according to another flight-tracking website, FlightAware.com. Aviation experts say a tailwind above 10 knots is considered dangerous.
The plane in question aborted its first landing attempt and crashed on its second attempt.
The aircraft, a 22-seat Canadair CL-600, crashed at 12:23 p.m. It flipped on its back before bursting into flames and sending a massive plume of black smoke into the sky.
Brabata, 54, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other men on the plane, Miguel Angel Henriquez and Moises Carranza Brabata, were airlifted to a Grand Junction, Colo., hospital where they were still recovering from serious injuries Tuesday. Both of the survivors are also pilots from Mexico but only one of them was reported to be flying the plane with the deceased.
The plane originated at Adolfo Lpez Mateos International Airport in Toluca, Mexico, and it stopped in Tucson, Ariz., to refuel before flying to Aspen, authorities said.
On Monday, NTSB investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder, commonly referred to as the black box, and deactivated the plane's emergency locator transmitter.
Using a crane, crews then loaded the wrecked plane onto a flatbed trailer and hauled it away.
Aspen's airport, which sits in a box canyon at an elevation of 7,820 feet, was closed the rest of Sunday and all of Monday while crews cleared wreckage from the scene and fixed runway lights and signage that were damaged during the crash. The airport reopened Tuesday.
The NTSB investigation is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete.
Fatal plane accidents at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (aka Sardy Field):
Dec. 27, 1982 — One person died and six were injured when a Cessna 404 crashed.
Feb. 15, 1983 — Four people died when a Cessna crashed east of Aspen.
April 9, 1989 — A pilot was killed after high winds and engine failure cause a Cessna T210F to crash one mile away from the runaway.
Nov. 12, 1990 — Too much weight on a Cessna T210L contributed to the deaths of four people when the plane stalled during take-off. The plane crashed just a quarter mile from Sardy Field.
Feb. 13, 1991 — A Learjet 35A crashed at Sardy Field, killing three people.
March 29, 2001 — A Gulfstream jet racing to beat the airport's nighttime curfew crashed amid snow squalls, killing all 18 people on board.
Jan. 5, 2014 — A Canadair CL-600 crashed and exploded on the Aspen runway, killing the pilot and injuring two others.
Other fatal aviation accidents in the Aspen vicinity:
July 8, 2000 — A Cessna flying from Sardy Field to a Front Range airport was destroyed when it slammed into mountains about five miles northeast of Aspen, in Lenado. The pilot, who had more than 20 years of commercial flying experience, and all three passengers aboard were killed.
Oct. 23, 1999 — A pilot was killed and two passengers seriously injured when a Cessna slammed into the mountains near Independence Pass during takeoff from Sardy Field.
April 1, 1993 — Three were killed and one injured when a helicopter malfunctioned and crashed into trees.
Feb. 13, 1991 — Three were killed in a Learjet after the plane failed to maintain speed. Snow was listed as a contributing factor.
Nov. 24, 1989 — Two people were killed after a Bruce McKinney aircraft ran out of fuel during a cross-country flight.
July 13, 1985 — One person was killed and another seriously injured when a Piper PA-28-161 crashed into trees in a nearby canyon.
(Source of accident data: NTSB)
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
