Twin Engine Jet Crash In Aspen

[Palehorse]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/05/us/colorado-plane-crash/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

At least one person died when a small plane crashed while trying to land at the Aspen, Colorado, airport Sunday, said Alex Burchetta with the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.
Two other people were transported to the hospital with "moderate to severe injuries," he said.
The pilot of the twin-engine jet earlier reported high winds during a previous attempt to land, according to a recording of the air traffic control radio transmission obtained by CNN through Flightaware, a flight-tracking website.
"Missed approach, N115WF.  33 knots of tail wind," the pilot is heard saying a few minutes before the crash.
Photos posted on Twitter showed the plane upside down on the tarmac, its fuselage charred.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to the scene to begin the crash probe, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson told CNN Sunday.
Two celebrities, who were at the small airport in the Aspen ski resort area, posted Twitter messages saying they witnessed the crash.
"So sad! Horrible plane crash we just saw happen at the Aspen airport," singer LeAnn Rimes tweeted. . .

[Exterminator]

I wonder why they didn't have him landing into the wind?

[Locutus]

Terrain obstructions perhaps obscured by weather?  I'll check the approach plates for KASE later this afternoon and see what the published approaches are.

[Locutus]

Just checked the information before grabbing some lunch.  There are no precision approaches to KASE, and the non-precision approaches are only published for runway 15 due to Mount Aspen being at a lofty altitude of 11,000 MSL on the arrival end of runway 33.

[The Troll]

  33 Knots tailwind landing?  WTF was he landing downwind for.    With a jet landing at over 110 MPH and with an extra 40 MPH. he's landing at over 150 MPH.  No one lands down wind but a idiot.   

[Locutus]

  33 Knots tailwind landing?  WTF was he landing downwind for.    With a jet landing at over 110 MPH and with an extra 40 MPH. he's landing at over 150 MPH.  No one lands down wind but a idiot.   

Like I said before, it's probably due to terrain.

[Locutus]

Terrain obstructions perhaps obscured by weather?  I'll check the approach plates for KASE later this afternoon and see what the published approaches are.

^^ From this picture, and listening to the ATC tapes of the incident, N115WF was approaching from the far end of the runway (RWY-15) and departures that day were departing from the near end of the picture (RWY-33).  They were sequencing arrivals and departures in and out through that terrain on the far end of the runway with arrivals heading toward the camera, and departures heading away from the camera.  This is most likely due to the terrain and weather conditions.  There are no published instrument approaches to RWY-33 at Aspen.

[Locutus]

Attached to this post are the ATC tapes of communications at the time of the accident.  Note how the tower controllers were warning each of the inbound pilots of gain due to wind shear.  N115WF misses the first approach, and then requests to be vectored back for the approach.  He crashes on the second attempt. 

At about the 5:50 mark into the record, ground control is giving taxi instructions to a departing aircraft, and if you listen carefully, you can hear another controller exclaim, "Oh my goodness!"