“Yes, most crashes are human error”
The golf course is Southwest of the approach end of 11 at TRK. If he was over there he probably overshot the turn to final on the circle to land approach that he was cleared for and made a basic mistake: accelerated stall low to the ground to try to get back to the runway centerline.
There were only 3 people on board an airplane that requires two pilots. So the 1 pax was probably not someone who would feel bad about a little edgy flying. The pilot would probably not have selected the circle to land approach with a full airplane, and may have elected to go to RNO or fly the missed approach for a second try.
The audio and ground track show a pilot flying who is confident and capable. Looks like he just overdid it on an approach that is always the most risky.
Thanks for the post.
Sounds very likely to me. One of the best I knew was killed exactly that way....and another not quite so good as well.
I aged out long ago but I think that at one time maybe back in the 1980’s the airlines put pretty heavy restrictions on circling approaches because of the dangers
Visibility was near minimums at 3.5 miles variable so most likely IMC approach, hot day, high altitude airport, high aspect ratio wing on a high performance jet, difficult approach pattern for a GA aircraft let alone a high perf jet with no slats, high density altitude, bad visual reference and he probably let her stall coming out of the “circle pattern” approach. Many failure points all add up to a devastating tragedy.