Continental Express Flight 2286 - Durango, CO
Posted by: 
Outspoken1
N 37° 15.682 W 107° 52.698
13S E 244750 N 4127750
Crash killed one of the designers of the Double-Jack Team monument in Durango, CO
Waymark Code: WM962H
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 07/04/2010
Views: 5
This monument, in part is dedicated to:
"In Memory Of
Boris Uskert
A dedicated Morrison-Knudsen employee
whose life was lost in an airplane accident
January 19, 1988 while enroute to Durango to
participate in the design of this monument."
Continental Express Flight 2286 crashed due to the pilot using cocaine and the co-pilot unable to land the plane. A summary reads:
"Continental Express Flight 2286, traveling from Denver to Durango, Colorado on January 19, 1988, was beginning its decent when it suddenly went below the safe minimum decent altitude near Bayfield, Colorado. The plane crashed into the terrain, killing seven on board. Eight others survived, one with serious injuries.
When the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) inspected the aircraft, a Fairchild Metro III, SA227 AC, as part of its investigation, they found no evidence of pre-impact failures or system malfunctions. As the investigation intensified, it became clear that the Captain’s reckless behavior and poor decision making was the ultimate cause of the fatal crash.
The NTSB discovered that it was the copilot, not the captain, who had control of the aircraft during its final approach. The evidence also showed that the captain had used cocaine before the flight which negatively affected his ability to monitor the already unstable approach conducted by the copilot. The NTSB concluded that the crash was a direct result of the captain’s carelessness, drug use, and inadequate supervision.
Records of both the captain and copilot revealed prior traffic violations, and in the case of the captain, a previous aircraft accident. This brought to light the negligence of Continental Express and their inability to hire reliable pilots. (From (
visit link)
The NTSB report may be found at (
visit link) .