A turboprop cargo plane flying for an Adams County check hauler crashed early Thursday while on approach to Centennial Airport, killing the pilot and destroying the plane.

The Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 vanished from airport-tower radar amid heavy rain about 1 to 2 miles south of the airport around 2 a.m., said Becky O'Guin, spokeswoman for the Parker Fire District.

Authorities identified the pilot in Thursday's crash as Sam Hunter of West Valley City, Utah. A representative of American Check Transport, which operates out of Front Range Airport, said Hunter had flown with the company for about five years.

The aircraft was flying into Centennial from Salt Lake City. No one else was on the plane.

It Christopher Roberts of the National Transportation Safety Board is stopped by a Douglas County officer as he drives to the site where a cargo plane crashed Thursday, killing the pilot. It is the third fatal accident in six years for MU-2B-60 aircraft flown by American Check pilots. (Post / RJ
Sangosti)

crashed in a rocky, hilly area east of Interstate 25, and it took about five hours for rescuers to find the wreckage.

As part of the accident investigation, air safety officials will review weather conditions at the time of the accident, said David Bowling, regional director of the National Transportation Safety Board office in Denver.

Officials said heavy rain, low ceilings and bad visibility were present at the time of the crash.

Because of the weather conditions, the pilot was relying on the plane's instruments while approaching the airport, and the accident inquiry will attempt to verify that the plane's instruments and Centennial's instrument landing system were working properly, Bowling said.

Investigators also will examine the "currency" of the pilot's training for instrument flying, he added.

The pilot was cleared to land when air-traffic controllers issued him a "low-altitude alert," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer. But there was no response from the pilot.

It was the third fatal accident in six years for MU-2B-60 aircraft flown by American Check pilots.

Last Dec. 10, a plane hauling checks for Vectra Bank crashed shortly after taking off from Centennial, killing pilots Paul Krysiak and James Presba.

The plane had engine problems on takeoff and was attempting an emergency landing when it crashed. The NTSB is still preparing a report on the accident.

Krysiak, 28, of Aurora was the pilot-in-command of the aircraft and had accumulated 325 hours flying Mitsubishi planes and 3,000 total flight hours.

In February 2000, an American Check MU-2 pilot was killed while approaching an airport in Lewiston, Idaho, when the plane hit a ridgeline about 1 1/2 miles from the runway. The pilot had reported a "dual engine flameout,"
according to the NTSB.

The safety board reported that the pilot did not follow flight- manual procedures and also cited the plane's operator for "not complying with a service bulletin for the installation of an auto-ignition system."

Some aviation experts say MU-2 aircraft are high-performance planes and require an unusually high level of recurrent training.

"You need to make a commitment to this airplane, more than a casual commitment," said pilot Earle Martin, who has accumulated more than 7,000
MU-2 flight hours over 16 years.

Martin owns an MU-2B-60, and operates an air charter service out of Houston.

He said he gets annual flight- simulator training and completes a proficiency check with an FAA inspector every six months.

NTSB investigators examined pilot training procedures at American Check Transport after the December crash.

"It's been an ongoing issue," said the NTSB's Bowling, "and I'm sure it's going to get more attention now."

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