NTSB says pilot lost control of small plane

The pilot of a small plane that crashed last year at the Eagle County Regional Airport, killing him and seriously injuring a passenger, lost control of the aircraft while trying to land in gusty conditions, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

Karl Hipp, a 68-year-old Delta County man, died in the June 5, 2015, crash when his Morse Rebel experimental, amateur-built propeller plane went down.

The aircraft touched down on the runway, became airborne again and then slammed into a hangar about 1,000 feet to the south. The NTSB says the plane had a crosswind limitation of 15 knots and that data showed crosswinds about the time of the crash were between 13.7 and 16.8 knots.

The NTSB, in its final report on the crash released Thursday, said the wreck’s cause was “the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane while landing in gusty, crosswind conditions that likely exceeded the recommended limitation of the airplane.”

The Vail Daily reported Hipp’s passenger was his teen granddaughter. The pair were on their way from the Holyoke Airport in eastern Colorado to the Eagle County Regional Airport when the plane went down.

“Examination of the airplane wreckage did not reveal any anomalies that would have prevented normal operation,” the NTSB final report says.

Witnesses told the NTSB that Hipp’s plane entered a sharp left turn away from the runway at a very low altitude after initially touching down, overflying the airport’s taxiway and ramp area before hitting the hangar. No one on the ground was injured.

One person who saw the crash said “the wind caught” as it was landing, according to the report. Security camera footage captured portions of the flight, and the footage confirmed witness reports, the NTSB says.

“The accident sequence is consistent with the pilot losing control of the airplane,” the report found.