Jessica Dubroff - Final Flight Segment

Final Flight Segment

Dubroff, her father, and her flight instructor arrived in Cheyenne the evening before the accident, after a long day of flying from their Half Moon Bay, California departure point. After some media interviews they got a ride to their hotel in the car of a local radio station program director, who recalled them discussing the forecast weather conditions for the next day.

The weather in the morning of the accident flight, as forecast, consisted of an area of heavy precipitation over and to the north and west of Cheyenne, with better conditions to the east, where the flight was headed. As the group were about to board their aircraft, the program director who had taken them to their hotel the previous evening interviewed Dubroff by telephone. Since it began to rain at the airport and the weather seemed to be deteriorating, the director invited her to stay in Cheyenne, but Dubroff's father declined, explaining that they wanted to "beat the storm" which was approaching.

After a telephone discussion with a Casper weather briefer, Reid decided to take off despite the worsening conditions at the airport, and to try to escape the poor weather by turning immediately eastward. Although he was instrument rated, Reid was not instrument current and could not legally operate under instrument flight rules. He decided to file a visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan, and depart under VFR, to be better able to cope with the heavy weather in his immediate takeoff path and the vicinity of the airport.

As the aircraft began taxiing to the departure runway, it was raining and visibility at the airport fell below the three mile minimum required for VFR flight. Cheyenne's control tower advised the Cessna about the reduced visibility and that the "field is IFR." Reid then requested and received from the control tower a special VFR clearance to allow him to exit the airport's control zone visually, despite the reduced visibility.