An airplane that crashed in the northern Colorado mountains in February, killing all four people on board, was approaching the Steamboat Springs Airport on a path not authorized for night use while flying too low to clear the mountain peak, according to federal officials.
The crash happened in the early hours of Feb. 13 when an Epic E1000 airplane carrying Tennessee residents Aaron Stokes, Jakson Stokes, Colin Stokes and Austin Huskey hit Emerald Mountain, 3 miles south of the Steamboat Springs Airport.
The flight departed from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville, Tennessee at 7:10 p.m. that evening and stopped for fuel at Kansas City Downtown Airport in Missouri at 11:03 p.m., the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary investigation report published Feb. 28.
Air traffic controllers gave the pilot approach information and then changed to a different radio frequency to communicate with him after he mentioned “RNAV 32,” an approach that is not authorized for night use.
The pilot acknowledged the frequency change but did not send out any other messages, NTSB officials said. Air traffic controllers then sent out an alert notice.
Federal investigators found an 80-foot crash scar at 8,175 feet elevation, 75 feet below the approximately 8,250-foot peak of Emerald Mountain.
Flight data showed the plane was operating normally at the time of the crash and was flying on autopilot, federal officials said. While the minimum descent altitude for that approach is 9,100 feet, the plane’s last recorded altitude was 8,221 feet, according to the NTSB.
Six days after the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice that pilots are prohibited from taking the “RNAV 32” approach into Steamboat Springs used by the Epic E1000, agency records show.
The “Procedure NA,” which stands for not authorized, is in effect until October.
Federal officials will publish a final report for the crash, including the probable cause and contributing factors, within two years, according to the NTSB.
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