In the third week of November 2011, a Rockwell 690 made a night VFR round trip from Safford in eastern Arizona to Falcon Field in Mesa, just east of Phoenix. On the return leg, the pilot turned right immediately after taking off from Falcon’s Runway 04R, remained at 4,500 feet until emerging from under Phoenix Class B and continued direct to Safford.
Two days later, the same pilot made the same 111 nm trip in a different 690, again at night and again under VFR, to pick up several passengers from Mesa. In this case, there were two pilots in the front seats, colleagues in the company that owned the airplane. They swapped positions at Mesa. The turnaround was quick; the 690 departed just 12 minutes after landing. This time, however, the local controller asked the pilot flying to maintain runway heading after takeoff until advised. When the 690 was a little more than a mile from the departure end of the runway, the controller cleared the pilot to begin his right turn. After a brief delay, he again turned east-southeastward and again climbed to 4,500 feet, where he remained until he passed the edge of Class B and began a shallow climb. A few seconds later, the 690 slammed into Superstition Mountain at 190 knots and exploded into fragments and flames.
