Sat, Jan 22, 2005
Investigators Say They Found Ice On Wings, Tail, Landing Gear
And Props
An NTSB spokesperson
has stated that the Yampa Valley Air Ambulance Beechcraft King Air
E-90 that we recently reported had crashed had ice on
its wings, control surfaces, landing gear and props. All three crew
members perished in the accident.
David Bowling, an NTSB employee, told the Steamboat Pilot that
investigators had found ice on all those locations of the 1978
turboprop, which was operated by Mountain Flight Service. The
initial investigation found that the ice was still attached to the
aircraft's surfaces and gear three days after the accident. The
investigation is still ongoing as to how much ice there was, and
what role it played in the crash.
"Certainly weather is going to play a factor," Bowling said. "But
we really can't stand on that just yet."
The aircraft crashed on January 11 at 2145 some three miles from
the Rawlins Municipal Airport in Colorado. They had left Steamboat
Springs (CO) earlier in order to pick up a patient from the Carbon
County Hospital. The pilot of the aircraft was identified as Tim
Benway, 35. Air ambulance director and flight nurse Dave Linner,
36, and flight nurse Jennifer Wells, 30, also perished. One person
survived, though -- EMT Tim Baldwin, 35, who is listed in fair
condition at a hospital in Fort Collins (CO).
Bob Maddox, the co-owner of Mountain Flight Service, stated that
icing is something their crews and aircraft are prepared for, and
that one of the reasons they use the King Air (company
photo above) is precisely because it has equipment to
handle icing conditions. "Those airplanes are very well built,
stable, (and) had the ability to shed ice," said Maddox. "If ice
was a contributing factor, it had to be something unusual, more
than typical. There was no report of any kind of icing preflight.
Had we known there was severe icing, we wouldn't have gone."
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