Accident · 2001-03-29

What the record says

Event date

2001-03-29

Event type

Accident

Highest injury level

Fatal injury

Aircraft

Grumman Gulfstream III (N303GA)

Operating rule

Part 135

Operator

Avjet Corporation Operator named in NTSB report

Operated by (per NTSB report)

AVJET CORP

Probable cause

the flight crew's operation of the airplane below the minimum descent altitude without an appropriate visual reference for the runway. Contributing to the cause of the accident were the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) unclear wording of the March 27, 2001, Notice to Airmen regarding the nighttime restriction for the VOR/DME-C approach to the airport and the FAA's failure to communicate this restriction to the Aspen tower; the inability of the flight crew to adequately see the mountainous terrain because of the darkness and the weather conditions; and the pressure on the captain to land from the charter customer and because of the airplane's delayed departure and the airport's nighttime landing restriction.

Flight crew

Flight-crew details for this event aren't in the NTSB database extract we hold (its coverage starts with 2008 events) — a gap in our data, not an absence of crew.