The plane went missing on the 10th of August in 1984. It was a Cessna L-19E “Bird Dog” – a two-seater liaison and observation aircraft built for the US Military.
[The pilot] had been offered a contract by the Colorado Dept. of Forestry to videotape a particularly nasty type of beetle infestation that had been ravaging hundreds of acres of Colorado forest in and around some of the higher-elevation foothills surrounding some of the Rockies. One thing that was unique about this particular flight was that the pilot had mounted a VHS video camcorder atop the instrument panel for the purpose of visually recording any beetle infestation that was observed along the flight route. The pilot started the camera shortly after takeoff and it ran until the aircraft crashed down through the trees – approx. 6-1/2 minutes later.
The tandem plane departed Granby (KGNB) with a passenger for the scenic flight over the Colorado mountains but never arrived at Jeffco (KBJC) as planned.
No one knew what had happened: the aircraft had tumbled into the trees and landed on the Emergency Locator Transmitter, cutting off the signal. Although there was a fire, it burnt out quickly and there was not enough damage to mark the crash site from the air.
The wreckage was discovered three years later, when backpackers hiking through the woods found the crash site, including a video tape hanging from tree branches. The video was released to the FAA who who were amazed to find that it had survived both the crash and three years of exposure with only minor damage.
Using the video as primary source data, the NTSB released an accident report.
The airplane departed Grandby 8/10/84 and failed to arrive at its destination. On 8/23/87, it was found on the slope of a high tree-covered ridge. Video tape recovered from the wreckage provided a visual and audio record of the flight from takeoff to impact. Comparing the recording to a topographical map, the flight was climbing and its altitude above the ground was decreasing when it crashed at the 10,200-ft level. During the last few seconds of the tape, the terrain dominated the view through the cockpit window. The pilot made a 60-deg bank, and the stall warning horn could be heard 3 times during aprx 180 deg of turn. the airplane subsequently stalled, flipped over, and entered the trees. The density altitude was about 13,000 ft.
The pilot continued to fly into rising terrain until he was boxed in. He saw the ski slopes which are almost certainly on the leeward side of the mountain: mountain flyers know these can produce a severe downdraft and are trained not to fly straight into them. The pilot presumably panicked because he then compounded his worsening situation with the steep turn to the right. The plane lost lift and the stall warners sounded.
The altitude, temperature and humidity combined to create the density altitude of 13,000 feet when the aircraft was actually at 10,200 feet. The high density altitude, flying over Colorado mountains in August, meant that in the turn, the plane was as high as it was capable of flying and was no longer able to climb at speed.
He makes a moderately steep turn to the right (in excess of 45 to 50 degrees angle of bank) in an attempt to turn around quickly – the plane loses considerable lift and initially stalls twice; then on the 3rd stall (with the stall warning horn blaring in the background), enters the traditional “stall/spin” syndrome and flips upside down as the left (up-wing) wing stalls completely and the plane, flipping over on its back, plunges straight down through the trees – but not before capturing the pilot’s last mournful cry to his friend in the back seat: “Damn, hang on Ronnie!!”; the plane smashes downwards through the thick tree branches (you can hear the heavy “thuds” as the plane’s wings smash into these while heading for the ground); it crashes & burns – killing both the pilot and back-seat passenger.
Improper in-flight planning/decision by the pilot in command and airspeed not maintained are cited by the NTSB report as the probable causes, with the high density altitude and mountainous terrain given as contributing factors.
The pilot’s family requested that the film not be released to the general public and a 20-year moratorium was placed on the footage. That expired in 2009 and the footage was released.
This is a hard video to watch. The plane is flying low and slow but there seem to be plenty of escape routes. I kept thinking, hey, there’s still room to get down, if he stalls now, he can head for that valley and get some speed back up. And every time, the aircraft got a little lower and a little slower, taking in the view. The pilot gets tempted down to look at the lake and never regains that height. When the mountains took over the horizon, he must have realised he was boxed in. And then that turn … I wanted to scream.
Such a damn shame.
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