CEN21FA305 · Hawker Beechcraft Corp G36
LEC Aviation Hawker Beechcraft Corp G36 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE) to Des Moines International Airport (DSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21FA305
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Hawker Beechcraft Corp G36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N36JJ
- Operator
- LEC Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE), Aspen, COTo Des Moines International Airport (DSM), Des Moines, IA
- Aircraft age
- About 14 years (built 2007)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While attempting to navigate over mountainous terrain on a cross-country flight, the pilot flew the airplane into a canyon with high mountains. Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast data indicated that the pilot likely attempted to fly out of the canyon. The airplane impacted trees and rising terrain and was destroyed by impact forces and a postimpact fire. Postaccident examination of the airplane and engine revealed no anomalies that would have contributed to the accident. The pilot initially requested an instrument flight rules flight plan, which included an instrument departure that the airplane was not equipped to fly. The pilot then requested a visual flight rules departure and provided his own navigation. The investigation could not determine, from the available evidence for this accident, if the pilot was familiar with or prepared to fly visually through the mountain pass.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to navigate through mountainous terrain, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21FA305
- Event ID
- 20210705103412
- Case number
- CEN21FA305
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2021-07-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 50c0c1b437f120e7b32667ed9439f68feef43d513f179142dd96a2515b8d0490; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:31:00.982Z.