Some streaks of blue paint and a pile of carbon fiber are among scant clues air-safety investigators have to work with to determine why two planes collided in clear skies over Boulder on Saturday afternoon.
With no one left alive from either aircraft, investigators will have to glean as much information as possible from the wreckage, match it with radar and other data, consider the accounts of witnesses and then resort to some informed guesswork, said Jennifer Rodi, National Transportation Safety Board air-safety investigator.
The planes, a Piper Pawnee and a Cirrus SR20, collided about 3 miles northwest of Boulder Municipal Airport, killing three. The Pawnee had been towing a glider, which released and was able to fly safely back to the airport.
Tuesday, Rodi spoke while standing in front of the charred wreckage that had been assembled in a hangar in Greeley.
The Pawnee was spread out behind a blackened propeller still mounted to the mangled engine. The left wing was more or less intact. But the right side of the plane was a twisted mass of metal.
The prop and a section of the Cirrus’ tail was in a corner of the 100-foot-by-100-foot building. Most of the plane was reduced to a mound of carbon fiber and wires.
“There is nothing left of the Cirrus,” she said. “It was entirely consumed by fire.”
Investigators will piece together clues from the wreckage and then look at the procedures and practices the pilots were following to “figure out where the weak link was,” Rodi said.
Rodi has interviewed the occupants of the glider. Their memories of the accident match signs of damage she noted on the Pawnee, she said.
Streaks of blue paint on a section of the right wing where it met the fuselage suggest the Cirrus struck the Pawnee from above. The Cirrus appeared to be descending as the Pawnee climbed toward 10,000 feet, where the glider was to be released.
Like most small airports in the United States, Boulder Municipal doesn’t have air traffic controllers. Pilots rely on visual flight rules that require them to be vigilant and to know where they are in relation to other aircraft.
But even if controllers had been monitoring traffic the accident still could have happened, said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
“At airports, they are concerned with the takeoff and the final approach to the runway,” he said. “Once that plane was airborne and on its way, they would be unlikely to be following it on radar. See and avoid, by and large, does work. Midair collisions are very rare.”
The Pawnee, piloted by Alexander Gilmer, 25, was towing a glider seconds before the Cirrus smashed into it. Reuben Bakker, who was piloting the glider, spotted the Cirrus to his right and disengaged.
“By the time my hand was on (the tow-release lever) it collided straight into the right side of my tow plane,” Bakker said on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning. “This happened really fast. The wings folded up on the tow plane. It was instant. There was a huge fireball.”
Bakker, an experienced pilot and flight instructor, said he began maneuvering away without knowing for sure if the cable had released.
“I pitched back, banked to the right, and we just flew straight through fire. I didn’t see wreckage anymore because it was gone. Everything was red.”
His quick action saved his life and the lives of his passengers, Brandi Hepburn and her 11-year-old son, Javen McDonald.
The single-engine Cirrus was piloted by Bob Matthews, 58, a partner with law firm Faegre & Benson’s Boulder office. His brother, Mark, 56, was a passenger in the plane.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
Funeral services set
The Matthews family will hold a funeral for brothers Bob and Mark, who were in the Cirrus SR20 and died in the plane collision, Saturday at 11 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 715 Cabrini Drive in Lafayette.
