Chartered Jet Aborted Landing Before Crash

ASPEN, Colo. —  A chartered jet that crashed near this ski resort, killing all 18 aboard, had abandoned its initial approach to the mountainous airport and was circling through steady snowfall for a second attempt to land when it exploded into a hillside, sources close to the investigation said Friday.

Two other chartered jets--one immediately ahead of the doomed plane and one right behind--also missed their first passes at the landing strip, pulling out at the last moment, several sources told The Times. Neither risked a second try, however, rerouting instead to another airport as poor weather and darkness closed in on this popular resort town.

The disclosures marked a difficult day for authorities Friday as they began to search for causes of the crash, to identify bodies pulled from the wreckage strewn along busy Colorado 82, and to deal with safety issues raised by the escalating use of private charter aircraft that function almost as commercial carriers--but, in some cases, with fewer regulations.

No distress calls were reported from the Gulfstream III twin turbojet, which left Burbank Airport and stopped briefly at Los Angeles International Airport before departing for Aspen shortly after 4 p.m. The plane, owned by Airborne Charter Inc., a subsidiary of the film company Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, reached the resort in the Rocky Mountains about 7 p.m., authorities said.

Carol Carmody, acting chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, offered a second-by-second account of the plane’s approach, based on control tower tapes, at a news briefing Friday.

Just seconds after 7 p.m., the pilot asked the tower by radio whether the runway lights were on. The tower immediately responded yes, then asked a few seconds later if the runway lights were yet in sight.

Six seconds passed and the pilot answered yes.

That was the pilot’s last transmission, Carmody said. About 35 seconds after that, the plane struck the hillside wing-first, shattering so completely that at least two of the passengers were found on the shoulder of the highway, well away from the main wreckage, still strapped in their seats, according to some witnesses.

Carmody said she had no knowledge that the plane had missed its first pass at the runway, although other sources provided that account.

Avjet Corp. of Burbank, which managed and operated the 20-year-old jet, said it was equipped with a ground-proximity warning system, unlike some private aircraft. Captain Bob Frisbie had logged more than 10,000 flight hours, and First Officer Peter Kowalczyk had accrued more than 5,500, the company said. Each man was certified on all Gulfstream models, Carmody said.

It was unclear whether wing ice was a factor in the crash.

Frisbie was an old hand at flying into Aspen-Pitkin County Airport--his last trip was only a few weeks ago, Avjet officials said. But he was attempting an instrument landing at a field where surrounding mountains, gusty winds and high altitude can make any approach harrowing.

“The instrument approach into Aspen probably is the most challenging . . . in the United States,” said Barry Schiff, a private aviation consultant and former commercial pilot. Because the airport is so closely rimmed with mountains, it is necessary to drop sharply in altitude and make a 360-degree turn to properly align with the runway, he said.

“It is very easy to lose sight of the airport and get disoriented,” said Bob Dolan, a Santa Barbara-based businessman and private pilot who has flown into Aspen about 30 times.

NTSB investigators have recovered the plane’s cockpit voice recorder. The tape, to be analyzed Monday in Washington, should enable officials to hear all of the crew’s final conversations and radio communications, in addition to engine sounds just before the crash.

However, the jet was not equipped with a flight data recorder, a device required on some--but not all--corporate and private aircraft to monitor altitude, airspeed, heading and other flight variables, the NTSB said.

Usually, the two devices are used in concert to provide a detailed picture of conditions at the time of a crash. The fact that there was no flight data box figured to heighten the concern among aviation safety officials that the laws are not adequately protecting the growing number of travelers who fly by private aircraft.

With some charter services operating more and more like commercial carriers, some critics say the regulations that govern them must be toughened.

“I believe . . . that everyone on a corporate aircraft deserves to be as safe as those flying on major commercial airlines,” Jim Hall, the former acting chairman of the NTSB, said in a December speech to members of the National Business Aircraft Assn. in Washington, D.C.

While noting that business jets have shown a generally exemplary safety record, Hall called for flight-data recorders in all passenger-carrying planes and a better program for dealing with aging corporate aircraft.

However, the Gulfstream III turbojet is acknowledged to be one of the safest of private aircraft. There was no indication of mechanical troubles with the plane. The charter was operating under a set of regulatory requirements less stringent than those required of large commercial carriers, but more stringent than those required of private aircraft and some other commercial carriers, an Avjet spokesman said.

NTSB officials said the plane in Thursday’s accident was in an earlier accident when it was in service in the Ivory Coast in 1988. Gulfstream bought the plane in 1989 and rehabilitated it in 1990.

Near the Aspen airport Friday, flashing signs on Colorado 82 warned drivers of “road work ahead,” but it wasn’t road work that four transit agency buses were shielding--it was the widely strewn wreckage, which included a recognizable section of a wing and part of the tail.

The plane appeared to crash about 100 feet from the four-lane divided highway and tumble through the brush to within 30 feet of the road. The craft knocked down a section of the 8-foot-high fence that keeps elk from wandering into the traffic lanes.

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Times staff writers David Ferrell, Richard Winton, Douglas P. Shuit, Kristina Sauerwein, Rebecca Trounson and Eric Malnic contributed to this story.