Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Strasburg, Colorado 80136
Saturday, January 27, 2001 UTC

NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident

The Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. On January 27, 2001, about 1737 mountain standard time, a Raytheon (Beechcraft) Super King Air 200, N81PF, 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 (IFR) flight plan under 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. The flight departed about 1718 from Jefferson County Airport (BJC), Broomfield, Colorado, with two pilots and eight passengers aboard. The pilot who occupied the left seat in the cockpit was solely responsible for the flight. The pilot who occupied the right seat in the cockpit, referred to in this report as the "second pilot," was not a required flight crewmember. N81PF was one of three airplanes transporting members of the Oklahoma State University (OSU) basketball team and associated team personnel to Stillwater Regional Airport (SWO), 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 (IMC) prevailed at the time of the accident.

NTSB Probable Cause Narrative

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.

Event Information

Type of Event Accident
Event Date 1/27/2001
Event Day of the Week Saturday
Time of Event 37
Event Time Zone Coordinated Universal Time? Same as GMT
Event City Strasburg
Event State COLORADO
Event Country --
Zipcode of the event site 80136
Event Date Year 2001
Event Date Month 1
MidAir Collision Indicator No
On Ground Collision occurred ? No
Event Location Latitude 394448N
Event Location Longitude 1041500W
Event Location Airport --
Event Location Nearest Airport ID --
Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport --
Distance from airport in statute miles --
Degrees magnetic from airport --
Airport Elevation --
Weather Briefing Completeness --
Investigator's weather source Weather Observation Facility
Time of the weather observation
Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) --
Weather Observation Facility ID BJC
Elevation of weather observation facility --
Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) --
Time Zone of the weather observation --
Lighting Conditions --
Lowest Ceiling Height 200
Lowest Non-Ceiling Height --
Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions --
Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling Obscured
Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) --
Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) --
Visibility (Statute Miles) 1
Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) -4
Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) -5
Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) --
Variable Wind Indicator --
Wind Speed (knots) 3
Wind Velocity Indicator --
Wind Gust Indicator Gusting
Wind Gust (knots) 0
Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) 30
Density Altitude (feet) --
Intensity of Precipitation --
METAR weather report --
Event Highest Injury Fatal
On Ground, Fatal Injuries --
On Ground, Minor Injuries --
On Ground, Serious Injuries --
Injury Total Fatal 10
Injury Total Minor --
Injury Total None --
Injury Total Serious --
Injury Total All 10
Investigating Agency NTSB
NTSB Docket Number (internal use) 10486
NTSB Notification Source Wiemeyer, Norm
NTSB Notification Date Jan 27 2001 12:00AM
NTSB Notification Time 2100
Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information IMAGE
Date of most recent change to record Jul 1 2003 7:04AM
User who most recently changed record NTSB\JOHB
Basic weather conditions Instrument Meteorological Cond
FAA District Office FAA AAI-100

Aircraft Involved

Aircraft #1

Aircraft Registration Number N81PF
NTSB Number DCA01MA017
Missing Aircraft Indicator --
Federal Aviation Reg. Part Part 91: General Aviation
Type of Flight Plan filed IFR
Flight plan Was Activated? Yes
Damage Destroyed
Aircraft Fire --
Aircraft Explosion --
Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name Beech
Aircraft Model 200
Aircraft Series Identifier --
Aircraft Serial Number BB158
Certified Max Gross Weight 12500
Aircraft Category Airplane
Aircraft Registration Class U.S. Registered/Foreign Soil
Aircraft is a homebuilt? No
Flight Crew Seats --
Cabin Crew Seats --
Passenger Seats --
Total number of seats on the aircraft --
Number of Engines 2
Fixed gear or retractable gear Retractable
Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection AAIP
Date of Last Inspection Jun 28 2000 12:00AM
Airframe hours since last inspection 78.5
Airframe Hours 8737
ELT Installed Unknown
ELT Activated Unknown
ELT Aided Location of Event Site Unknown
ELT Type --
Aircraft Owner Name --
Aircraft Owner Street Address --
Aircraft Owner City --
Aircraft Owner State --
Aircraft Owner Country --
Aircraft Owner Zipcode --
Operator is an individual? Yes
Operator Name Jet Express Associates
Operator Same as Owner? No
Operator Is Doing Business As --
Operator Address Same as Owner? No
Operator Street Address --
Operator City --
Operator State --
Operator Country --
Operator Zip code --
Operator Code --
Owner has at least one certificate None
Other Operator of large aircraft? --
Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation --
Operator Certificate Number --
Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not --
Indicates Domestic or International Flight --
Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail --
Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) Business
Second Pilot on Board --
Departure Point Same as Event No
Departure Airport Code BJC
Departure City Broomfield
Departure State CO
Departure Country USA
Departure Time --
Departure Time Zone MST
Destination Same as Local Flt --
Destination Airport Code SWO
Destination City Stillwater
Destination State OK
Destination Country USA
Specific Phase of Flight Climb - to cruise
Report sent to ICAO? No
Evacuation occurred No
Date of most recent change to record Jun 26 2003 3:41PM
User who most recently changed record HAUT
Since inspection or accident --
Event Location Runway Number and Location --
Runway Length --
Runway Width --
Sight Seeing flight No
Air Medical Flight No
Medical Flight --