Accident Overview
On January 27, 2001, at about 1737 mountain standard time, a Raytheon (Beechcraft) Super King Air 200, registration N81PF, crashed into rolling terrain near Strasburg, Colorado. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire. All 10 occupants—two pilots and eight passengers—were killed. The flight was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan.
Flight Details
The aircraft was owned by North Bay Charter, LLC and operated by Jet Express Services. It departed at about 1718 from Jefferson County Airport (BJC) in Broomfield, Colorado, bound for Stillwater Regional Airport (SWO) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The flight was one of three airplanes transporting members of the Oklahoma State University (OSU) basketball team and associated team personnel after a game at the University of Colorado at Boulder earlier that afternoon.
Cockpit Crew
The pilot occupying the left seat was solely responsible for the flight. The pilot in the right seat, referred to in the report as the "second pilot," was not a required flight crewmember.
Meteorological Conditions
Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed at the time of the accident.
Probable Cause
The probable cause of the accident was 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 was the loss of a.c. electrical power during instrument meteorological conditions.