The pilot of a small plane died Saturday afternoon when the plane crashed about a mile south of Madras Municipal Airport.(Jefferson County Sheriff's Office)
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MADRAS, Ore. - (Update:Sheriff says only one person on plane, not two; comments from airport neighbor, young witness)
A pilot was killed in the crash of a small plane Saturday afternoon in the Willow Creek Canyon as it approached Madras Airport from the south, authorities said.
The plane, a single-engine, home-built Wheeler Express, was arriving at the Madras Airport when it crashed "under unknown circumstances" in Willow Creek Canyon around 1:50 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
Dispatchers with 911 notified Jefferson County sheriff's deputies of the crash shortly before 2 p.m., said Deputy Ron Larson.
Oregon State Police troopers and Jefferson County Fire and EMS also responded to the scene, about a mile south of the airport, Larson said.
They reached the plane from the south side of the canyon and found the plane engulfed in flames near the top of the canyon.
Officials at the Joint Information Coordination Center in Redmond said an area farmer was on scene fighting a fire on the plane when first responders arrived at the scene.
Officials initially had confirmed there were two people aboard the plane who did not survive the crash. But Sheriff Jim Adkins said late Saturday night that was in error, and only person, the pilot, was on it.
While the name of the victim has not been released, San Francisco TV station KPIX reports the plane was registered to a Menlo Park, California man and took off from the San Carlos airport around 11 a.m. NBC Bay Area said an employee at that airport confirmed the plane left the San Francisco peninsula city earlier in the day.
Officials said the plane was one of about 400 due to fly into Madras for the eclipse, so many that the airport, which usually operates without a tower, brought in a mobile one.
The sheriff's office confirmed the pilot was in contact with air traffic control and was on final approach.
The small brushfire sparked by the crash was being mopped up and is no longer a threat to the area, Larson said, adding that no other property was damaged.
Jim Spencer lives just south of the airport and is used to the sounds. He was in his backyard, entertaining family in town for the eclipse.
As another plane soared overhead later, on its way to a landing, Spencer said the approach "pretty much lines up with my driveway. So they're nice and quiet. But when you hear one go, 'brrp, brrp, broop,' you know, and it (the engine) cuts out - it just caught my attention. Five, six minutes later, we heard all these emergency sirens."
And Spencer also saw "a huge column of black smoke. And I knew -- that guy crashed his plane. And it was just - I figured it was somebody coming for the eclipse, you know -- likes flying. And then -- tragedy, you know. I felt sick."
The plane hit the south side of the canyon, sparking a brushfire.
"It kind of nosed in and it got lower," said Diego Lopez, a young witness. "I thought it was going to land right there," he said, pointing to a grassy field.
"I yelled, 'A plane just crashed! A plane just crashed.," he said. "It was crazy."
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board was advised and are investigating, the deputy said.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins, who is a pilot, said he didn't expect such a tragedy, even with the increase in traffic related to the eclipse.
"I've flown out of this airport myself for the last 25 years, and it's a very safe airport," Adkins told NewsChannel 21. "And the way that they have security and air traffic control today for this big event, the big eclipse event, I am a bit surprised that that this happened."
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Updated on August 19, 2017 at 10:06 PM
By Carli Brosseau
The Oregonian/OregonLive
This post has been updated.
The pilot of a small airplane died in a crash near Madras Municipal Airport early Saturday afternoon, Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins said.
The plane crashed just before 2 p.m. in a steep and remote area about one mile south of the airport's runway, said Lisa Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Central Oregon Joint Information Center.
When first-responders arrived at the scene of the crash, near the top of Willow Creek Canyon, the plane was engulfed in flames, with a local farmer trying to put out the fire, Goodman said.
The Bend Bulletin has obtained aerial video footage of the scene, shown below.
The plane was approaching the airport when it crashed, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane was a single-engine, homebuilt Wheeler Express, he said.
Both the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. An NTSB investigator is expected to arrive tomorrow.
No information was yet available about the cause of the crash. Officials also were not releasing any information about the pilot.
KPIX, a CBS affiliate in San Francisco, reported that the plane was registered to a man from Menlo Park, in the Bay Area, and took off from the airport in San Carlos.
The fire has been extinguished and did not affect the crowd gathered at the airport to view Monday's solar eclipse, officials said. Several people saw the crash, and investigators were interviewing them Saturday afternoon.
NTSB records show that there have been five fatal crashes at the Madras airport since 1964.
The most recent fatal crash was last year. A pilot from Alaska, Marcus Bruce Paine, 61, crashed while performing at an air show.
Three people died in two separate crashes in the summer of 2005. The two earlier fatal crashes were in 1977 and 1964.
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MADRAS, Ore. (KOIN) — An airplane with 2 people on board crashed AND BURNED near the Madras airport just before 2 p.m. Saturday.
The small airplane did not make it to the airport and crashed about a mile away, down in the Willow Creek Canyon Area. The impact sparked a small brush fire, which Jefferson County Fire crews extinguished quickly.
The pilot died in the crash, according to the Central Oregon emergency information network.
“I heard the plane coming in and I heard it sputtering some — which is not uncommon, we hear it quite often, so I didn’t really think much about it — and then a few seconds later I heard the impact,” Madras resident Michele Quinn told KOIN 6 News.
Visitors who were golfing nearby saw the plane take sharp turn before it crashed into the canyon.
A farmer was the first person on the scene and volunteer firefighters were called upon to help fight the fire that started when the plane crashed.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane was a single-engine, homebuilt Wheeler Express that was on its way to the Madras airport when it crashed.
Investigators are working to determine why the plane crashed.
More than 200,000 people are expected in Madras for the solar eclipse on August 21. CBS News reports the Madras Municipal Airport normally gets three flights an hour, but as thousands flood to the small town, planes have been arriving every three minutes.
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Pilot after small plane crashes near Madras airport
by KATU Staff
Saturday, August 19th 2017
An emergency vehicle rushes to the site of a fire just south west of the Madras airport. Photo by Dan Morrison, Oregon News Lab
MADRAS, Ore. — A small plane crashed near the Madras airport in the Willow Creek Canyon area, killing two people Saturday afternoon.
Officials confirm the pilot did not survive the crash, and that they were the only two aboard the plane. Willow Creek Canyon is a very steep and remote area.
Emergency responders reached the plane from the south side of the canyon and found it fully engulfed in flames.
Officials say a small fire resulting from the crash is no longer a threat to the area.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Jefferson County Fire, Jefferson County EMS, Oregon State Police and Madras Police responded to the scene.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to travel to Madras this weekend to view Monday's solar eclipse, and a large viewing area has been set up at the Madras airport near where the crash occurred
Date: 19-AUG-2017
Time: -14:11
Type: Wheeler Express
Owner/operator:
Registration:
C/n / msn:
Fatalities: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities: 0
Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location: Willow Creek Canyon, Madras, OR -
United States of America Phase: Landing
Nature: Unknown
Departure airport:
Destination airport: Madras Muni (S33)
Narrative:
The aircraft, an experimental Wheeler Express, impacted steep canyon terrain south of Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, Oregon, and a post-impact fire ensued. The airplane was destroyed and the two occupants onboard received fatal injuries.
Sources:
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2017/08/1_dead_in_plane_crash_near_air_1.html
http://katu.com/news/local/small-plane-reportedly-crashes-near-madras-airport-where-thousands-set-to-view-eclipse
http://koin.com/2017/08/19/small-airplane-crashes-near-madras-airport/
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2017/08/19/officials-investigating-plane-crash-madras/583578001/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Willow+Creek+Canyon+Trail,+Madras,+OR+97741/@44.6571015,-121.1572625,15z/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x54bee96486f71375:0x1eaead6c2cd35484?hl=en-us