One cloudy spring day a few years ago a Beechcraft Baron piloted by a high-time ATP and with a relatively experienced private pilot in the right seat hit a peak in the Ruby Mountains of eastern Nevada while en route from Truckee, California, to Salt Lake City. Both occupants were killed in the crash. The airplane, which was getting flight following from Salt Lake Center at the time of the mishap, hit terrain at 10,500 feet in controlled flight. An NTSB investigator concluded that the airplane had most likely been in visual conditions until just before it hit the steeply sloping terrain just a couple of hundred feet below the peak’s summit, which was the highest terrain in the area.
The tragic accident is also an intriguing one on several counts. First, the accident airplane was on the second leg of a two-leg trip that began earlier in the day in San Carlos, California. The flight was flown VFR, and the first leg, according to the NTSB report, went off without a hitch. The second leg, flown through the heart of the Sierra Nevada range in California and Nevada, was flown later in the day, also under VFR. The pilot did ask for and get VFR flight following services; with flight following, it’s important to understand that ATC’s role is limited. The pilot in command is responsible for maintaining adequate clearance from terrain and from clouds. In this case, it’s tragically clear that neither happened.
