Shortly after midnight on February 13, 2026, an Epic E1000 began its approach to Steamboat Springs Airport in Colorado. Four people died when the single-engine turboprop crashed near the field, according to the FAA.
The agency has since done something it rarely does. It suspended the RNAV (GPS) Z approach to Runway 32, a procedure many pilots have called “the most dangerous in America.” A Notice to Airmen marks the approach “NA,” not available, through at least October 1, 2026. The FAA did not publicly say why.
The ridge pilots cannot see
The procedure includes a straight-in approach that lines aircraft up with Runway 32 by GPS, plus published minimum altitudes that keep crews clear of terrain when flown as designed. It also carried a note: straight-in minimums were unavailable at night. The reason is geometry. The normal descent profile would put an aircraft below the summit of a mountain ridge south of the airport, and at night that ridge is invisible to pilots coming in from the south.
The E1000 offers little backup here. Its cockpit terrain alerts are inhibited in approach mode, to cut down on nuisance alerts. It does have a synthetic-vision terrain display, but in some situations it is hard to tell from the display whether the aircraft will clear the terrain.
The AOPA Air Safety Institute published an early analysis in the days after the crash. It noted that the aircraft crossed a key waypoint below the published minimum altitude before impact, and said the pilot may have missed the chart note that the straight-in approach was “NA at night.”
What remains open
Pilots still have other ways into Steamboat Springs. The RNAV (GPS)-E procedure remains available. It routes aircraft east of Emerald Mountain, which is where the Epic hit terrain.
Removing this one approach is the only confirmed action to come out of the crash so far. Crews flying to the airport will have to plan around it. The NTSB investigation will decide what caused the accident, and whether the approach design, charting, training, aircraft equipment or operational choices played a part.
