I got the following message from Jim Herd today and, since he doesn't
post to RAS and this was important information, he said it would be OK
for me to post in his stead. I'll add some comments that I sent him as
the first reply on this thread:

On Apr 5, 2009, at 10:48 PM, Jim Herd wrote:

Pilots and Friends of Geoff,

Click on the links below to read the final NTSB report on Geoff’s
accident. Don’t worry, it isn’t gruesome. The basic conclusion is that
unanticipated extreme turbulence got him. I think the report is
accurate, but maybe that’s because I helped the NTSB guy with his
work.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?...FA231& akey=1

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?...07FA231&rpt=fi

Incidentally, the parallels between Geoff’s accident and Steve
Fossett’s are uncanny. They were just 3 weeks and 50 miles apart, at
the same altitude with similar winds and gnarly mountains. Both were
flying quite close to terrain, and both were hit by unexpected extreme
turbulence caused by a combination of wind, terrain, and thermal
activity. The entire aviation community around the world needs to
learn something from these events – especially Geoff accident because
his expertise was as good as anyone and he had a helluva lot of local
knowledge. The message I have learned is to stay further away from
terrain, especially when downwind of terrain. We all need to increase
our safety margins.

So I think this report marks the end of official action on the
accident. Even with Geoff’s extreme knowledge and experience, and the
certainty that he knew turbulence would be very likely in that area
and he would have known how to deal with it, it seems a piece of
turbulence came along that exceeded his expectations and reached out
and grabbed him.R.I.P.

Please forward this to anyone you choose.

Cheers,

Jim Herd

P.S. Here is the Fossett accident report for your reference, and BTW,
the lead NTSB investigator for Fossett is the wife of the guy who
investigated Geoff:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?...07FA277&rpt=fa