SEA96MA043

History of flight

On January 15, 1996, at 0618 mountain standard time (MST), a Mitsubishi MU-2B-36, N693PA, was destroyed when it impacted terrain in a near-vertical attitude approximately eight miles northwest of Malad City, Idaho. The crew had declared an unspecified emergency moments before while in cruise flight at 15,700 feet MSL (mean sea level). The airline transport pilot and commercial pilot crew members, and the six passengers on board, were fatally injured. The aircraft, owned by Pro Air Services of Utah, LLC (a Utah limited liability company), was being operated by Pro Air Services of Salt Lake, LLC, for the purpose of transporting Swire Coca Cola, USA, executives from Salt Lake City, Utah, the departure point, to Pocatello, Idaho. The flight was one of a series of demonstration flights for which Pro Air Services of Salt Lake received compensation exceeding that stipulated in 14 CFR Part 91. An instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed for the flight, which had departed Salt Lake City International airport at 0548:40.

After departure from Salt Lake City, the aircraft had climbed to and leveled off at approximately 16,100 feet MSL and maintained about 190 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS for close to twelve minutes. The aircraft then performed a heading change of approximately 20 degrees to the east and a subsequent correction back to the original heading. An oscillatory descent to 15,700 feet MSL and a slow decrease in indicated airspeed to approximately 150 KIAS was noted from radar data over the next two minutes of flight following the initial change of heading. About 15 minutes after leveling off, at 0617, the crew advised Air Traffic Control (ATC) that they had an unspecified emergency. No further communications were made by the crew. Soon after that point, radar contact was lost. Radar data also showed the aircraft's indicated airspeed decreasing from about 190 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) to about 100 knots (KIAS) in the six minutes immediately preceding the uncontrolled descent from 15,700 feet MSL. The wreckage was found in open hilly terrain, approximately 5240 feet MSL. There was no report of an ELT actuating. There was a post-crash fire.

Before this flight, the MU-2's captain (who was a registered agent and officer of both Pro Air Service of Utah and Pro Air Services of Salt Lake) had previously provided at least 14 "executive demonstration" flights in N693PA to executives of Swire Coca-Cola, USA, while doing business as Pro Air Services of Salt Lake, LLC. The flight was conducted under 14 CFR 91, and was described as a series of flights for a "road show" marketing program for Swire Coca-Cola, USA, which is a large regional bottler of Coca-Cola products. Passengers on board the aircraft included four upper-level Swire executives, and two executives of Scopes Garcie Carlisle, Swire Coca Cola's advertising agency. No evidence was found that either Pro Air Services of Utah, LLC, or Pro Air Services of Salt Lake, LLC, held a 14 CFR 135 air carrier certificate. (The airplane was, however, on 14 CFR 135 operating specifications for D and D Aviation, LC, of Salt Lake City, which had an approved minimum equipment list for the aircraft.)

A "flight management & consulting service agreement" existed between Swire Coca-Cola and Pro Air Services of Salt Lake, wherein a monthly stipend was paid by Swire Coca-Cola to Pro Air Services of Salt Lake, which would provide pilot services and management services, including making aircraft available which could be used for executive transportation. This agreement was signed August 1, 1995, and was to be valid for six months. A second agreement, also signed August 1, 1995, provided Swire Coca Cola with a list of aircraft "available for demonstration," with a price schedule based upon price per hour of utilization.

On the morning of the accident, at 0516, the Cedar City (Utah) Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), received a telephone call from the pilot of N693PA requesting a weather briefing and expressing a desire to file an IFR flight plan. That person stated that he planned on departing Salt Lake for Pocatello, Idaho, in about 20 minutes. The FSS specialist asked if the pilot wanted just current reports or a standard briefing. The pilot stated that current reports were okay," 'cause it doesn't take very long to get up there."

The FSS specialist provided current Salt Lake City weather as "twenty thousand overcast, visibility ten, temperature thirty-one, dew point twenty-nine, winds calm. Pocatello is showing measured ceiling nine thousand overcast, visibility twenty, temperature forty-five, dew point twenty-one and the wind two-one zero at one three. [I] don't see any pilot reports and just to the northwest of Pocatello there is an airmet for occasional mountain obscuration right in the Pocatello area. To the north-northwest, northeast all the way around to the southwest, [an] airmet [exists] for occasional moderate rime icing from about six or ten thousand...somewhere between six and ten thousand feet all the way up to twenty thousand and then an airmet over Idaho for occasional moderate turbulence below sixteen thousand."

The pilot requested winds aloft at 18,000 feet MSL, which the FSS specialist provided for Salt Lake City, from 260 degrees at 44 knots, and Pocatello, from 270 degrees at 49 knots. The pilot then filed an IFR flight plan, specifying that the aircraft had "slant romeo" equipment available (meaning that the aircraft was equipped with RNAV, or area navigation, with transponder and altitude reporting encoder), 260 knots cruise speed, departure time 1235 Zulu [0535 MST], 17,000 feet MSL cruising altitude, fifty minutes time en route direct from Salt Lake City to Pocatello. He stated that he had four hours of fuel on board, eight persons on board, and a black, silver and white aircraft. The conversation with the FSS specialist was terminated at 0519. The pilot did not file an alternate destination.

According to IFR low altitude en route charts, the minimum en route altitude (MEA) for V-21, the airway that approximately underlies the proposed route of flight, was 10,000 feet MSL. Total distance was about 152 nautical miles. Pocatello VOR (a VHF omnigational range navigation facility) is 41 nautical miles from Malad City VOR; the crash site was approximately five miles north-northeast of Malad City VOR.

Hudson General, an aircraft fueling facility at Salt Lake City International airport, fueled the airplane prior to the flight. Their invoice for Jet-A fuel, dated January 15, 1996, indicated that the four wing tanks were to be topped, and 45 gallons were to be pumped in each tip tank. Total fuel delivered to the aircraft was 138 gallons. Refueling personnel observed the passengers and crew boarding the flight, and provided a ground-power unit (GPU) start for the airplane.

At 0542:33, the crew called Salt Lake City ATCT (Air Traffic Control Tower) ground control east by radio, advising that N693PA was at Hudson South and ready to taxi, and stated that they would "get their clearance on the way." At 0542:39, N693PA was cleared to taxi to runway 17.

At 0542:56, Salt Lake City ATCT (Air Traffic Control Tower) clearance delivery was contacted by the crew of N693PA, who requested their IFR clearance to Pocatello.

Clearance delivery provided an amended clearance to Pocatello, changing the pilots' filed routing to instead fly a heading of 160 degrees for a radar vector to V-21 to Malad, then direct to Pocatello; to climb and maintain eight thousand feet, and to expect 17,000 feet [MSL], ten minutes after departure. Departure control frequency of 135.5 Mhz (megahertz) and a transponder code of 4311 were also issued.

The crew read back their clearance. Their altitude restrictions were clarified by clearance delivery. At 0543:56, the crew acknowledged the correct clearance to expect a clim