2001 — Jan 27, Charter Plane Crash, OK St U Basketball Members, Strasburg, CO–10
— 10 Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). Colorado, USA.
— 10 Aviation Safety Network. Accident description. Beechcraft 200 Super King Air.
— 10 NTSB. AAR. In-Flight Electrical System Failure and Loss of Control…Jan. 27, 2001.
Narrative Information
NTSB: “On January 27, 2001, about 1737 Mountain Standard Time, a Raytheon (Beechcraft) Super King Air 200, N81 PF, owned by North Bay Charter, LLC, and operated by Jet Express Services, crashed into rolling terrain near Strasburg, Colorado. The flight was operating on an instrument flight rules flight plan under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The flight departed about 1718 from Jefferson County Airport, Broomfield, Colorado, with two pilots and eight passengers aboard. N81 PF was one of three airplanes transporting members of the Oklahoma State University basketball team and associated team personnel to Stillwater Regional Airport, Stillwater, Oklahoma, after a game at the University of Colorado at Boulder that afternoon. All 10 occupants aboard N81PF were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash fire. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s spatial disorientation resulting from his failure to maintain positive manual control of the airplane with the available flight instrumentation. Contributing to the cause of the accident was the loss of a.c. electrical power during instrument meteorological conditions. (NTSB, p. vi.)
“The complete loss of a.c. electrical power would have rendered most of the pilot’s flight instruments inoperative.” (NTSB, p. 27)
“Despite the loss of a.c. electrical power, the pilot could have safely flown and landed the airplane from the left seat by referencing the available (non-a.c.-powered) flight instruments on the right side of the cockpit (the altimeter and the airspeed, attitude, and turn and slip indicators). Also, the pilot could have asked the second pilot to fly the airplane because the available flight instruments would be more easily viewed from the right seat. The Safety Board could not determine from the available evidence what actions the pilot took (or did not take) and the extent to which the pilot might have coordinated with the second pilot. Nevertheless, the Safety Board concludes that the pilot did not appropriately manage the workload associated with troubleshooting the loss of a.c. electrical power with the need to establish and maintain positive control of the airplane.” (NTSB 2003, 31)
“This accident was not survivable for any of the airplane occupants because they were subjected to impact forces that exceeded the limits of human tolerance….
“The airplane’s estimated flight path in the final 2 minutes of flight was consistent with a graveyard spiral resulting from pilot spatial disorientation….
“Colleges and universities would benefit from reviewing a model policy based on Oklahoma State University’s postaccident team travel policy and then implementing a travel policy that is commensurate with the institution’s travel needs.” (NTSB 2003, pp. 36-37)
Sources
Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). Colorado, USA. Accessed 3/3/2009 at: http://www.baaa-acro.com/Pays/Etats-Unis/Colorado.htm
Aviation Safety Network. Accident description. Beechcraft 200 Super King Air. Jet Express Services. Saturday 27 January 2001, 17:37. Accessed 11-14-2015 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20010127-2
National Transportation Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report. In-Flight Electrical System Failure and Loss of Control, Jet Express Services Raytheon (Beechcraft) Super King Air 200, N81 PF, Near Strasburg, Colorado, January 27, 2001 (NTSB/AAR-03/01). Washington, DC: NTSB. January 15, 2003, 74 pages. Accessed 11-14-2015 at: http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR0301.pdf