This is the video of a Cessna L-19E single-engine light plane that crashed high in the Rockies of Colorado on Aug. 10th, 1984. Both the pilot and the passenger were killed. The wreckage was found 3 years later. Inside the wreckage, investigators discovered a camera that has entirely recorded the accident.
The problem was that the pilot was flying into what can be clearly seen as gradually ever-ascending terrain altitude, and quickly exceeded the airplane’s effective “service ceiling” – the point at which a plane cannot maintain at least a minimum safe rate of climb – He made a moderately steep turn to the right (in excess of 45 to 50 degrees angle of bank) in an attempt to turn around quickly. The plane lost considerable lift and initially stalls twice; then on the 3rd stall (with the stall warning horn blaring in the background), it entered into a spin and flips upside down and the plane, flipping over on it’s back, plunges straight down through the trees.
This video is being submitted by John Youngs for the purpose of showing new, fledgling private pilots the dangers of flying into high-density altitude situations without careful pre-flight planning and/or flight training into areas of mountainous terrain, along with the obvious lessons to be learned from this tragedy.