The crash of a single-engine propeller airplane into a Berthoud reservoir last year was likely due to errors made by the two pilots killed in the wreck, federal investigators say.
James Griffith, a 23-year-old from Denver, was learning to recover from aerodynamic spins with 58-year-old Patrick Blankemeier, the chief pilot in charge of flight instruction for Broomfield-based McAir Aviation, when the Cessna 172 they were traveling in went down.
The National Transportation Safety Board, in a final report on the crash, says it was probably caused by the pilots’ failure to “adequately recover from the intentional aerodynamic spin.”
MORE: Read the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report
The NTSB found no evidence “of a mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation during the flight.” According to the final report, the agency also found no evidence of problems with the Cessna’s flight controls.
“It is likely that the pilots did not apply prompt and/or correct flight control inputs to adequately recover from the intentional aerodynamic spin,” the report said.
Both Griffith and Blankemeier were licensed pilots.
The wreck happened on Feb. 27, 2017. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane in a nose-down spin — completing several turns — before disappearing into Culver Reservoir.
☀ OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
- Progressive leaders criticize Melat Kiros for declining to call deadly Boulder firebombing antisemitic
- What’s Working: In Fraser, the arts — and a sprawling new arts center — become the town’s identity
- Former Pueblo County coroner, brother each facing 152 felony charges after funeral home investigation
- Did long-term unemployment rise in the US in the past year?
- Takeover reports send Vail Resorts stock up as CEO Rob Katz defends network of 42 ski areas as “the heart of our business model”
- Melat Kiros may be on the verge of unseating Diana DeGette. Here’s how that came to be.
- Steamboat Springs gravel race organizers baked cookies and knocked on nearly 300 doors to win over rural neighbors
- Drew Litton: Can the Nuggets afford to improve?
- Jim Morrissey: The Dems’ two-headed gubernatorial candidate
- “What’d I Miss?”: Honest answers to deceptive questions