On January 19, 1988, a twin-engine commuter plane descended through an overcast Colorado night toward a mountain valley and struck a ridge twelve miles from the runway at Durango. The pilots were experienced. The aircraft was functioning normally. Investigators found no mechanical failure of any kind. So what brought Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 down on a routine approach — and why did it take more than a year, a stranger's tip at a hotel in Phoenix, and a second round of toxicology testing to find the answer? Join Alice and Zach for the story of a crash that exposed the people hiding inside America's commuter airline system, and the slow, imperfect reforms that followed.

Sources:

• Aircraft Accident Report NTSB/AAR-89/01: Trans-Colorado Airlines, Inc., Flight 2286 - National Transportation Safety Board
• "A Sickness and Its Cure: The crash of Trans-Colorado Airlines flight 2286" - Admiral Cloudberg, Medium
• "Dangerous Approach" - Mayday: Air Disaster, Season 16, Episode 6 - Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic
• "A Continental Express commuter plane crashed on a snow-covered ridge in southwestern Colorado" - UPI, January 20, 1988
• "No mechanical failure found in commuter plane" - UPI, January 22, 1988
• "Airline crash attributed to cocaine" - UPI, January 31, 1989
• "Anti-Drug Program for Personnel Engaged in Specified Aviation Activities, Final Rule" (53 FR 47024) - Federal Aviation Administration, November 21, 1988
• "Pilot Records Improvement Act of 1996" - Federal Aviation Administration
• "Reinforcement and Rapid Delivery Systems: Understanding Adverse Consequences of Cocaine" - S. Cohen, National Institute on Drug Abuse Monograph 61
• "The Behavioral Pharmacology of Cocaine in Humans" - M.W. Fishman, National Institute on Drug Abuse Monograph 50

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

• Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
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Credits: Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.