NTSB investigators will leave today after being on-site near Truckee-Tahoe Airport in California after a Bombardier Challenger 605 crashed on Monday afternoon while attempting a circling maneuver for a visual approach to land on Runway 11. Both pilots and the four passengers were killed in the accident. The crash site is in heavily treed terrain adjacent to a golf course.
According to the latest information available, one of the pilots reported the aircraft’s position at Lummo, the final approach fix inbound for the RNAV Runway 20 approach to the 5,900-ft elevation airport and stated they needed to circle to Runway 11 for landing. A witness stated he saw the aircraft descending left-wing-down. Other witnesses said they saw the aircraft in a “very sharp turn” before impact.
Preliminary flight tracking data shows the aircraft crossing over the extended Runway 11 center line at 148 knots, about 300 feet above the terrain, less than a mile from the threshold, and descending at 1,125 fpm. The data also shows the aircraft banking in an apparent attempt to recapture the heading for a short final.
The 2008 model twinjet, registered as N605TR to Tarco Aircraft Funding of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was on a Part 91 flight that had departed at 11:45 a.m. from Coeur D’Alene Airport in Idaho. Terminal weather information is not yet available. An NTSB spokesperson told AIN that the “wreckage will be recovered today and moved to a facility in California where a formal wreckage layout will take place at a later date.” A preliminary report is expected to be published within three weeks.