CNN’s Ana Cabrera reports on newly-released surveillance video from a fiery and deadly plane crash in Aspen, Colorado.
New video may provide insight into the cause of the crash of a private jet on Runway 15 at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport/Sardy Field (KASE), Aspen, Colorado. One crew member was fatally injured; the other crew member and a passenger received serious injuries. The aircraft burned and was destroyed — resting upside down.
The aircraft landing attempt occurred with a tailwind of at least 25 knots from a high altitude due to surrounding mountainous terrain.
Surveillance infrared video shows that a first landing attempt was aborted, and then shows that the second landing attempt also possibly involved an attempt to abort. After touch down or near touch down, the aircraft noses up for takeoff, but suddenly dives down into the ground and bursts into flames.
Aspen–Pitkin County Airport a county-owned public-use airport located northwest of Aspen.
Preliminary report on the Jan. 5 crash of a Canadair CL-600 in Aspen, CO, is now available at http://t.co/iEzMFwX2XU
— NTSB (@NTSB) January 17, 2014
#BREAKING: Fiery plane crash at Aspen Airport – http://t.co/dHhmQRDR2c VIEWER PHOTO: pic.twitter.com/yXRtXZOQVe
— 7NEWS Denver Channel (@DenverChannel) January 5, 2014
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION …
NTSB Identification: CEN14FA099
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Sunday, January 05, 2014 in Aspen, CO
Aircraft: CANADAIR LTD CL 600 2B16, registration: N115WF
Injuries: 1 Fatal,2 Serious.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On January 5, 2014, at 1222 mountain standard time, a Bombardier CL-600-2B16, N115WF, impacted the runway while attempting to land on Runway 15 at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport/Sardy Field (KASE), Aspen, Colorado. There were two crewmembers and a passenger onboard. One crewmember was fatally injured; the other crewmember and passenger received serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed. The airplane was registered to the Bank of Utah Trustee and operated by Vineland Corporation Company, Panama, South America under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from Tucson International Airport (KTUS), Tucson, Arizona, at 1004.
According to preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration, the flight was in radio contact with ASE air traffic control (ATC). At 1210, N115WF utilized the localizer DME-E approach into KASE. ASE ATC reported winds as 290º at 19 knots, with winds gusting to 25 knots to the crew before landing. The crew executed a missed approach, and then requested to be vectored for a second attempt. On the second landing attempt N115WF briefly touched down on the runway, then bounced into the air and descended rapidly impacting with the ground at midfield. No further communications were received by ASE ATC from the accident airplane.
At 1220, the KASE automated surface observation system (ASOS) reported the following weather conditions: wind from 320° true at 14 knots gusting to 25 knots, wind variable from 280° to 360, visibility 10 miles in haze, scattered clouds at 4,700 feet above ground level, ceiling broken at 6,000 feet, temperature -12° Celsius (C), dew point temperature -21° C, altimeter 30.07 inches of mercury. The remarks indicated a peak wind from 320° at 26 knots occurred at 1204.
The KASE ASOS one-minute data at the time of the accident reported the wind at 333º true at 14 knots gusting to 17 knots.
The cockpit voice recorder, flight data recorder, and Enhanced Ground Proximity System were recovered.