Aspen at night

"Ron Lee" wrote in message ...

I just read the full narrative of the screwup (accident). I missed
where they went wrong. Since they impacted short of the runway I
would have to assume that they went below MDA too soon. However it
seemed like they were saying they had the airport in sight.

Ron Lee

The MDA at KASE is more than 2000 feet above the airport surface.
I wouldn't simplistically blame descending "below MDA too soon".
I think there probably was more to it than that.
I've flown approaches into Aspen several times, and they're not easy.

All of the approaches to KASE follow the Roaring Fork valley upstream.
I can definitely assure you that it gets dark early in the Aspen Valley,
and also that the final descent is very steep.
A complicating feature is the upsloping runway 15, which can give the
visual illusion to the pilot of seeming to be higher than actual.
Not only that, but also the 7000-foot runway is only 100 feet wide.
That can further aggravate the tendency to feel too high on final.

Under marginal visual conditions, it would be quite easy to drop too low
into the river valley, lose visual contact with the runway lights,
and then impact the highway on the high southwest bank of the river,
a fraction of a mile short of the runway.

There's good cause for that note on the KASE Airport chart which reads:
"Operations during periods of reduced visibility discouraged
for pilots unfamiliar with area."