Flight 217 Crash

[rfburns]

Did anyone hear this?

Rocky Mountain 217: “Center… Be aware that we have a little problem here.”

Denver Center: “Rocky Mountain 217 – What’s your approximate location?”​

Rocky Mountain 217: “We’re Victor 101 crossing the 335 Kremmling" noises "13,000"​

Denver Center: “Rocky Mountain 217. Go ahead, sir.”​

Denver Center: “Rocky Mountain 217. Go ahead. Rocky Mountain 217, do you copy? Denver Center to Flight 217" "Denver Center, How do you read? Do you copy”​

Those transmissions were 30 years ago this Thursday evening and started one of the largest search and rescue incidents in Colorado history. Flight 217 took off from Steamboat Springs enroute to Stapleton with a crew of 2 and 20 passengers. The Dash 7 crashed near Buffalo Pass. The pilot and a Forest Service employee would die in the crash. ​

At the base of the foothills west of denver the wind was gusting from 80-90 MPH. Just before the crash, those winds were fanning a fire at an industrial center south of Hwy. 72 and west of Indiana which was being fought by Arvada.​

For fifteen hours the search and follow on rescue phase created almost non-stop radio traffic. Most of the traffic was on State 3 (154.905) with Hot Sulphur Dispatch and on Civil Air Patrol FM and 4 Megahertz frequencies. The weather was too bad to fly except for a C-130 which was on 123.1 MHz. Eventually a lot of on scene comms were on 155.160. ​

Today it would be so much easier to communicate via DTR.

The Emergency Locator Transmitter could be heard for miles because the aircraft was below a high power transmission line.​

It was certainly a memorable night of radio communications in Colorado. I hope some of you were able to listen in.

 

[GrayJeep]

30 years ago I was in shift work doing the prototype training phase of US Naval Nuclear Power school.
I hadn't discovered scanners yet.

Do you have some particular attachment to this event?

 

[DGroves]

30 years ago I was about 2 months old.

 

[Warbirdhunter]

Did they ever find out what brought the air craft down?

 

[GrayJeep]

NTSB database entry:

Icing & downdrafts.

Flying low near mountains when winds aloft are 50 kts is known these days as probably fatal.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=38721&key=0

 

[rfburns]

Do you have some particular attachment to this event?

I was the Communications Leader, but in the first few hours at the Grizzly Creek Guard Station ICP there was only about five of us. We all did whatever needed to be done to locate the patients, prepare a receiving area for them by gaining entry to the Guard Station, locate firewood, determine resource needs and on and on. The media reported that the wind chill temperature at the site was -50.

 

[GrayJeep]

I was the Communications Leader, but in the first few hours at the Grizzly Creek Guard Station ICP there was only about five of us. We all did whatever needed to be done to locate the patients, prepare a receiving area for them by gaining entry to the Guard Station, locate firewood, determine resource needs and on and on. The media reported that the wind chill temperature at the site was -50.

Thank you for your service.

You were doing the kind of work that the Elk Mountain searchers were doing in 1946.
See my website: http://coloradowreckchasing.com

 

[Warbirdhunter]

Thanks

Thank you for your service.

You were doing the kind of work that the Elk Mountain searchers were doing in 1946.
See my website: http://coloradowreckchasing.com

Very cool site, thank you for sharing. It has to be a very odd experience to see what was once a big aircraft, now reduced to pieces. Website is very well done, I am very impressed. Thanks again.

 

[rfburns]

Flight 217

9NEWS will air a 3.5 minute piece on the crash tonight and it should be repeated Friday morning.