Four bodies came off Emerald Mountain in the dark hours of Friday, February 13, after an Epic E1000 flew into the slope while lining up for Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Routt County Sheriff Doug Scherar said the crash happened around midnight. “Last night, four bodies were recovered by the Routt County Sheriff’s Office, search and rescue and the coroner,” he told a local news outlet.
The flight
The aircraft was a 2024 Epic E1000, registered as N98FK, and it had left Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City. Officials said it hit terrain on the south-facing side of the mountain, about three nautical miles south of Bob Adams Airport, during the approach. Its last ADS-B position was logged near the summit shortly after 12:19 a.m. local time.
The airport sits at 6,882 feet, and the mountain tops out at 8,200 feet. FAA registry data shows the plane belonged to ALS Aviation LLC of Franklin, Tennessee. It is a single-engine turboprop with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67A engine, and a terrain proximity warning system and synthetic-vision display come as standard.
Automated reports from the airport showed visibility of five to 10 statute miles, with broken and overcast cloud between roughly 1,400 and 4,100 feet above ground level. Winds were light and variable. The FAA and the NTSB are investigating, and the NTSB leads the probe. The site was secured and closed off while crews worked.
The victims
Authorities named the dead as 47-year-old Aaron Stokes, his 21-year-old son Jakson Stokes, his 21-year-old nephew Colin Stokes, and 38-year-old Austin Huskey of Huskey Building Supply. Stokes, of Franklin, Tennessee, founded the repair company EuroFix and, in 2016, a coaching business called Shop Fix Academy for independent repair shop owners.
Michael Rosenberger, the academy’s CEO, said: “Aaron built this company to outlast him. He had a comprehensive continuity plan in place, which allows our team to remain fully operational.”
Huskey’s firm called him “a fearless leader, a gracious man, a devoted father and husband, and a faithful follower of Christ.” Shop Fix Academy said the Stokes family has not started a GoFundMe page or any other fundraiser, and it warned people to be wary of unverified campaigns.
Sources
- Colorado Epic E1000 Crash Near Steamboat Springs Kills Four
- Epic E1000 crash near Steamboat kills four
- Who was Aaron Stokes? Millionaire CEO and nephew Colin Stokes reputedly killed in Colorado plane crash
