Aspen Arrival

I won't lie, I've been in a situation before where I have been on the fence about flying or not flying. I was suffering with "get there itis" when I was planning my long cross country for stage 4. When I was at flight ops, the weather seemed to be fine, but I noticed a storm cell pushing up into Colorado from New Mexico. If I left at a certain time, I might have beat the cell to the airport. That is what got me nervous. If I had gone, I may have beat the cell but only in best case scenario. What if something delayed me on the ground or in the air on the way? The storm would have beaten me, and I would have been in a bad situation. I was at flight ops for about half an hour deciding my go or no-go. I decided I would be cutting it too close, and postponed the flight for later.

Unfortunately, pressure got to the pilot flying into Aspen. He was basically demanded by "the boss" to fly into Aspen and only Aspen on their own time. Pressured to keep his job, the pilot decided to go for it, even though he would be landing extremely close to the cerfew and in deteriorating weather conditions.

On the way to Aspen, the pilot had many clues about what the conditions at Aspen were like. He knew they were deteriorating, and he heard two airplanes before him execute missed approaches. This should have been a clue that something was not right.

Also, the weather was right at minimums and continuing to get worse. This was a sticky situation.

Not only that, but the approach to land should have never been issued in the first place, as it was illegal to circle into Aspen at night. This was unfortunately the fault of the tower.

So with all these circumstances and "get there itis", everybody on board that airplane unfortunately lost their lives that night. The very sad part is that the alternate airport showed excellent weather and they could have landed there no problem.

The pilot should have put safety first and diverted to the alternate airport. This way, everybody could have kept their lives. Sure, "the boss" would have been pissed, but at least he would have been alive. Life goes on. Dinners are missed sometimes.

If I was in this situation, I know it would have been hard to execute authority as pilot in command and stand up to the boss. When it all comes down to it though, I would have had no choice but to fly into the alternate airport instead in the name of safety. Yes, I would have been in trouble, but I would have been alive.