Plane Crash & Fire, Aurora CO 3/19/14

[Guest]

Yesterday afternoon a plane was seen doing many dramatic, low altitude tricks and spins near County Line Road & Piney Lake Road.  It drew the attention of many people in the area who were all subsequently watching when it crashed.  The area is a nightmare of jurisdictional boundaries which caused a lot of duplicated response and confusion initially. 

Aurora Firefighters were dispatched first, then South Metro and lastly Rattlesnake.  Units from 3 counties responded to different locations for the same crash that people saw from different vantage points.  The first unit on scene was Aurora Arson 1 who found an airplane fully engulfed and 2 acre brush fire with slow spread.  Aurora Truck 14 made a little off road journey and was able to park within pre-connect distance and pull a line. 

 

First shot walking up (sorry for the bad lighting)

   

[Guest]

Truck 14 knocking the fuselage fire

   

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South Metro Engine 47 and Medic 42 accessed from a different direction and began attacking the south flank.

   

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Engine 47's pumper tanker with lines off for the vegetation fire

   

[Guest]

South Metro's Wildland FDO (Fire Duty Officer) works the west flank with a combi tool before more units arrived.

   

[Guest]

Medic 42 working the south flank

   

[Guest]

South Metro's ARFF Team responded from Centennial Airport.  From left - Safety 31, Red 3, Red 2 & Red 1 getting assignments.

   

[Guest]

With the Brush Trucks still a little while out, Red 1 was used to quickly contain the flanks of the brush fire.

   

[Guest]

   

[Guest]

Red 1 hitting hot spots while Safety 31 keeps an eye on things

   

[Guest]

The single occupant of the plane was found deceased.  After the fire was under control a very thorough search took place for items significant to the investigation.

   

[Guest]

   

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[Guest]

Last one... ARFF mopping up hot spots.

 

The impact site ended up being only a few yards from the Arapahoe County line and inside Douglas County.  This is the 3rd airplane crash I've been too in the area in the past two years.

   

 

I made a little map to show the accident sites.  The oldest is on left and the one yesterday is on the far right.  None of the crashes are related to airport approach or departure.

   

[agoulder]

Great pics!

[hank]

Good photos!

 

tHANKs

[gmuhr]

Nice work! 

 

I like the ARFF rig fighting the brush fire you probably won't see that again!

[southwheatland514]

Any idea if it was a stunt pilot practicing or just someone with a death wish?

[Guest]

Any idea if it was a stunt pilot practicing or just someone with a death wish?

 

Thanks guys!

 

That is the pressing question right now.  It was recently released that he was a full time pilot for Frontier Airlines and had bought that plane within the past few weeks.  No other info has come out yet.