A crew from McDonald's Towing raise a small single engine Beechcraft plane after it crashed at the end of Kalamazoo Battle Creek Airport runway in the parking lot of Great Lakes Aviation, 2422 E. Kilgore Road Tuesday afternoon. (Jonathon Gruenke / Kalamazoo Gazette)
| Plane crash press conference |
| Plane crash at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport |
By Aaron Aupperlee | Kalamazoo Gazette
PORTAGE -- The pilot killed in a plane crash Tuesday came to Kalamazoo to have repairs made to his plane, which three months earlier was landed on a highway in an emergency caused by engine problems.
After a Kalamazoo-area company completed the repairs, the pilot prepared to fly away. But the small, single-engine plane barley lifted off the ground when it left the runway of the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport. It plowed through the fence of Great Lakes Aviation Services about 100 yards away from the runway on the north end of the airport, burst into flames and skidded across a parking lot on Kilgore Road.
Killed in the 8:45 a.m. crash was pilot James George planecrash.jpgView full size Wilton, 60, of Bracebridge, Ontario. He was the lone occupant in the Beechcraft A36TC.Wilton, a veteran pilot, was heading to Muskoka Airport in Gravenhurst, Ontario, about two hours north of Toronto, officials said.
Authorities said the crash was caused by mechanical problems but did not elaborate.
The fatal crash was the second in the airport’s 83-year history. It was the 23rd fatal crash involving a Beechcraft A36TC since 1982, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Elton Townsend, owner of Lake Central Air Services, in Gravenhurst, shared a hangar with Wilton at the Muskoka Airport. He said the plane was brought to Kalamazoo for the repair of the engine problems that occurred in July. It was not Plane crash Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International AirportView full sizeMark Bugnaski | Kalamazoo GazetteA small single engine Beechcraft plane crashed at the end of Kalamazoo Battle Creek Airport runway in the parking lot of Great Lakes Aviation, 2422 E. Kilgore Road. clear how long Wilton was in town.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration report, the plane registered to Wilton, identified by its serial number and tail number, suffered a “catastrophic cylinder failure” on July26 in which a piston smashed through the plane’s engine case while it was flying over Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
The pilot, who was not named in the report, landed the plane on an empty stretch of highway outside of Green Bay, Wis. In its report, the FAA called the landing an “example of superb airmanship.”
Townsend said Wilton was a good pilot who flew nearly every week for business. According to a spokeswoman for the American Bonanza Society, whose members own Beechraft Small plane crashesView full sizeEmergency workers stand at the scene where a small single engine Beechcraft plane crashed at the end of Kalamazoo Battle Creek Airport runway in the parking lot of Great Lakes Aviation, 2422 E. Kilgore Road. Mark Bugnaski /Kalamazoo Gazetteplanes, Wilton was a consultant. The spokeswoman did not know what industry he worked in.
Ron Bushouse, a service manager at Ryder Truck Rental and Leasing, 2211 E. Kilgore Road, saw the crash as he was working outside. Bushouse said the plane was “barely off theground” and headed toward Ryder as the engine was “popping.”
Townsend said the popping noise could have been caused by a broken cylinder, indicating another engine failure.
“You could see the smoke coming off the plane,” Bushouse said. “He tried to pitch high, and the engine quit. He made an emergency turn around, and the plane crashed.”
Bushouse said the plane “burst into flames instantly” when it Plane crashView full sizeScene of a plane crash at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport this morning. A small private plane crashed through a fence surrounding the airport and ended up on property belonging to Great Lakes Aviation on Kilgore Road. The plane burned. Photo courtesy Bill Evenboer.crashed through a fence along Kilgore Road and skidded across a parking lot. Three parked cars were damaged by thefire.
People ran from a nearby building with fire extinguishers and attempted to put out the fire, but it was too intense, Bushouse said.
“He didn’t get out. He didn’t have a chance,” Bushouse said. “It burst into flames.”
Police and firefighters closed a stretch of Kilgore Road near the airport shortly after the crash. The plane’s wreckage smoldered as investigators cordoned off the area with yellow tape. Little was left of the front end of the plane, and the engine was completely exposed. A large piece of debris lay next to the fence.
Plane crash Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International AirportView full sizeCourtesy of Ed OulletteScene from a plane crash this morning at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport. A Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety fire vehicle is at left.Kilgore Road was reopened at 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Late Tuesday afternoon, investigators from the National Traffic Safety Board arrived at the airport and took over the investigation. Parts of the plane were moved Tuesday evening.
Mark Stirling, an airport manager at the Muskoka Airport, said the airport was notified of the crash once the plane’s Emergency Location Transmitter was triggered. The radio deviceautomatically broadcasts a plane’s location after a crash, Stirling said.
“It’s never good news,” Stirling said.
The first fatal crash at the Kalamazoo airport was on April 19, 1998, when a small single-engine plane crashed just after takeoff, killing all four passengers.
Kalamazoo Gazette staff members contributed to this report.
Mark Bugnaski | Kalamazoo GazetteA small single engine Beechcraft plane crashed at the end of Kalamazoo Battle Creek Airport runway in the parking lot of Great Lakes Aviation, 2422 E. Kilgore Road.
Flight Aware, Track Log
PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) - A pilot was killed after a single-engine plane crashed into a parking lot in Portage Tuesday morning.
The victim has been identified as 60-year-old James George Wilton of Ontario, Canada.
The Michigan Department of Transportation says the crash occurred at around 8:45 a.m. near a building on Kilgore Road, east of Portage Road, northeast of the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport.
Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officer Christopher Reiser was on his way to work when he and several witnesses saw the single engine Beechcraft shortly after take off.
"It was an abnormal sight to me to see a plane flying so low," Reiser told 24 Hour News 8. "It was so low to the ground. You could just see it over the tops of the buildings and it kind of canted itself to the side toward the east and it made kind of a drop in altitude as it went over the buildings. Just wasn't normal for a plane that was taking off or landing."
Reiser kept watching until the plane dipped so low it disappeared behind some buildings.
"About four or five seconds after I lost sight of the plane I saw the large plume of smoke," he said.
Another witness told 24 Hour News 8 he watched the Beechcraft Bonanza A36 plane struggling to gain altitude as it took off from the airport.
"The engine was popping and smoking," said the witness, who declined to be identified. "It made it to the fence (at the airport's north end), banked to the right and crashed nose first to the ground."
The witness said it appeared the pilot was trying to land in a parking lot at a building that used to house Western Michigan University's flight school. Another firm leases that building from the school.
The witness praised the pilot for the apparent efforts to avoid populated areas, knowing the aircraft was in trouble.
The plane burst into flames on impact.
"We tried to get to the pilot, but it was obvious it was too late," the witness said.
Other witnesses also noticed the pilot was having difficulty controling the aircraft while in the air.
"I was on my way to work when I saw an airplane and knew right away something was wrong," said Heather Stewart, who heard the crash and works at the nearby Pepsi Bottling Group plant.
"I kind of saw it glide down like a toy glider," said Stewart. "It hit nose first and was surrounded by flames."
Ed Ouellette told 24 Hour News 8 he was driving in the area and saw a puff of smoke and the plane engulfed in flames. He said there were "individuals outside trying everything they could to extinguish the flames."
Ouellette said he and other passersby stopped at the scene to help rescue the pilot but were unable to due to the fire.
Emergency personnel quickly arrived and doused the flames. The victim was later pronounced dead.
"Either the pilot or the owner of the airplane had just picked it up from being repaired or being inspected, and was actually taking off from the airport after having that completed," said Assistant Chief Brian Uridge of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
24 Hour News 8 checked the plane's recent flight record, which shows it flew on Sunday from Muskoka, Ontrario to Coleman A. Young International Airport in Detroit and then to Kalamazoo. A flight plan was filed for Tuesday morning from Kalamazoo to Muskoka.
The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration continue to investigate the crash.
PORTAGE, Mich. - Officials say a small single-engined airplane bound for the Muskokas in Ontario apparently had mechanical problems and crashed on takeoff from a Michigan airport.
They said the unidentified pilot was killed.
The plane was taking off this morning from a southwest Michigan airport when it crashed and burst into flames.
Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration's regional office in Chicago, says the Canadian-registered Beechcraft Bonanza A36 crashed around 8:45 a.m. while trying to depart from the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport.
The plane was bound for the Muskoka Airport, about a 90-minute drive north of Toronto.
Molinaro said the pilot, whose identity was not released, was the only person aboard.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A plane has crashed at the Kalamazoo Battle Creek International Airport.
It happened in the 2200 block of East Kilgore Road which is closed as of 11:00.
The plane crashed in a parking lot.
The police and fire presence has ratcheted down on East Kilgore Road but there are still a number of emergency services personnel and investigators on the stretch of road that has been closed since just before 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
What is left of the plane can be seen resting in the parking lot of Great Lakes Aviation. The crash killed the pilot.
According to authorities the plane was trying to take off from the airport en route to Muskoka, Ontario when it experienced some mechanical problem and then crash landed at the north end of the runway. It burst through the security fences and then came to a halt in the parking lot.
Kalamazoo Public Safety say the plane did catch fire and was on fire for a few minutes, but it was quickly extinguished.
Authorities are not sure what exactly killed the pilot but they have not removed the body as of 11:00.
"What the initial report is, and what we're finding based on the scene is that the pilot crash landed just north of the airport, so not actually on the runway, and then skidded into the parking lot through one of the security fences and then stopped just south of the road," said Assistant Police Chief of KDPS Brian Uridge.
The pilot was the only person on board. The single engine Beechcraft is not a Western Michigan University plane and does not belong to Great Lakes Aviation either.
The road remains closed and authorities are waiting on the FAA and the NTSB.
Planes have been seen taking off and landing at the airport, so there appears to be no significant impact on service.
Two Pfizer employees who were loading a truck at the time of the crash say they saw the plane take off at a low speed, start to waver and began to flap back and forth before banking off to the right side of Great Lakes Aviation.
That's when they say it exploded into a massive fireball.
Other witnesses say they saw something similar.
As soon as the plane crashed the airport locked down. The Beechcraft crashed at about 8:45. Airport authorities shut down the terminal to figure out the next step.
Although air traffic at the airport was shut down for a short time it did not affect any passengers there.
The airport director tells Newschannel 3 any time there is an incident at or near the airport all runways are shut down for inspection.
"At approximately 8:43 we had an incident, or a notification of an incident, at that point our runways were shut down. Our runways were shut down for a half hour and reopened at 9:15 after an inspection of the runway," said Airport Director Cliff Moshoginis.
There were no commercial flights scheduled in or out of the airport during the brief shut down.
===============
By Joe LaFurgey
PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) - One person was killed, according to the medical examiner's office, after a single engine plane crashed into a vehicle in a parking lot Tuesday morning in Portage. It is not known yet if the pilot was the one who died.
The Michigan Department of Transportation says the crash occurred just before 9 a.m. near a building on Kilgore Road, east of Portage Road, northeast of the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport.
"I was on my way to work when I saw an airplane and knew right away something was wrong," said Heather Stewart, who heard the crash and works at the nearby Pepsi Bottling Group plant.
"I kind of saw it glide down like a toy glider," said Stewart. "It hit nose first and was surrounded by flames."
Another witness, Ed Ouellette, told 24 Hour News 8 he was driving in the area and saw a puff of smoke and the plane engulfed in flames. He said there were "individuals outside trying everything they could to extinguish the flames."
Ouellette said he and other passersby stopped to help at the scene.
Emergency personnel quickly arrived and doused the flames.
The crash reportedly occurred near a building that used to house offices for Western Michigan University's College of Aviation. Another firm leases that building from the school.
A WMU spokesman told WKZO the plane was not from WMU and no students or faculty were at the airport.
Kilgore Road between Portage Road and Sprinkle Road remains shut down as emergency crews work the scene.
---------------
PORTAGE — The pilot of a small, single engine plane was killed Tuesday morning during takeoff at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport, officials said.
There was no other passengers in the Beechcraft plane, which was taking off at 8:45 a.m. when it crashed through the fence of Great Lakes Aviation Services about 100 yards away from the runway on the north end of the airport.
No other information on the victim was being released as of 10 a.m.
The plane had mechanical problems but officials did not elaborate.
The plane plowed through a fence and burst into flames, said Assistant Chief Brian Uridge, of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
Two cars in a parking lot behind the fence on property owned by Western Michigan University were also burned. The property, in the 2200 block of Kilgore Road, is leased to Great Lakes Aviation Services.
Ron Bushouse said he knew immediately something was wrong when he heard a “popping” sound from the single-engine plane.
Bushouse, the service manager at Ryder Truck Rental and Leasing, 2211 E. Kilgore Road, about 100 yards from the airport, and a co-worker were doing a yard check of the company’s lot just before 9 a.m. when Bushouse saw the single-engine Beechcraft struggling to take off.
Bushouse said the plane was “barely off the ground” and headed toward Ryder when the engine started “popping.”
“You could see the smoke coming off the plane,” Bushouse said. “He tried to pitch high and the engine quit. He made an emergency turn around and the plane crashed.”
Bushouse said the plane “burst into flames instantly.”
He said the plane crashed through a fence along Kilgore and stopped against parked cars. People ran from a nearby building with fire extinguishers and attempted to put out the blaze, but it was too severe, Bushouse said. He said he does not believe the pilot or anyone in the plane could have survived.
“He didn’t get out. He didn’t have a chance. It burst into flame right when it hit the ground.”
Fire and rescue crews were on scene.
EYEWITNESS REPORTS
From Ed Ouellette, an online auction company owner who took picturess w/his camera phone .
“We own Biddergy.com (an online auction company), which is just down the road there. We were actually driving down Sprinkle Road and turning onto Kilgore, when we saw the black smoke. We kind of freaked out for a second, saying oh, gosh, we were thinking it was Biddergy.
"We came up on the actual plane, which is actually just engulfed in flames. There were a few people there trying to do what they could do to get the flames out. We didn’t see a crash, but others said there were some Pfizer workers who saw a plane come down.
“We stopped but there wasn’t much (they could do), unfortunately.”
From Bill Evenboer, owner of Evenboer-Walton Realtors.
“I was coming west on I-94, saw the big black cloud of smoke and i was just pulling off onto Portage Road anyway, so I got off right there at Portage Road and seemed like 30 police cars and (emergency vehicles fire trucks and ambulances) came by. It just seemed at that point it was a plane crash.
"I pulled around the Stryker headquarters there and pulled back into their parking lot and stuff and just observed . . . (what was going on) . . . and could just see the plane sitting there with the blue tarp, but I was probably a good 3- to 400-yards away . . . and they were just tending to the plane . . . But it pretty much they closed Kilgore and it was lined with emergency vehicles. . . . I actually saw the big plume of smoke.”
---------------
PORTAGE — The pilot of a small, single engine plane was killed Tuesday morning during takeoff at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport, officials said.
There was no other passengers in the Beechcraft plane, which was taking off at 8:45 a.m. when it crashed through the fence of Great Lakes Aviation Services about 100 yards away from the runway on the north end of the airport.
No other information on the victim was being released as of 10 a.m.
The plane had mechanical problems but officials did not elaborate.
The plane plowed through a fence and burst into flames, said Assistant Chief Brian Uridge, of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
Two cars in a parking lot behind the fence on property owned by Western Michigan University were also burned. The property, in the 2200 block of Kilgore Road, is leased to Great Lakes Aviation Services.
Ron Bushouse said he knew immediately something was wrong when he heard a “popping” sound from the single-engine plane.
Bushouse, the service manager at Ryder Truck Rental and Leasing, 2211 E. Kilgore Road, about 100 yards from the airport, and a co-worker were doing a yard check of the company’s lot just before 9 a.m. when Bushouse saw the single-engine Beechcraft struggling to take off.
Bushouse said the plane was “barely off the ground” and headed toward Ryder when the engine started “popping.”
“You could see the smoke coming off the plane,” Bushouse said. “He tried to pitch high and the engine quit. He made an emergency turn around and the plane crashed.”
Bushouse said the plane “burst into flames instantly.”
He said the plane crashed through a fence along Kilgore and stopped against parked cars. People ran from a nearby building with fire extinguishers and attempted to put out the blaze, but it was too severe, Bushouse said. He said he does not believe the pilot or anyone in the plane could have survived.
“He didn’t get out. He didn’t have a chance. It burst into flame right when it hit the ground.”
Fire and rescue crews were on scene.
EYEWITNESS REPORTS
From Ed Ouellette, an online auction company owner who took picturess w/his camera phone .
“We own Biddergy.com (an online auction company), which is just down the road there. We were actually driving down Sprinkle Road and turning onto Kilgore, when we saw the black smoke. We kind of freaked out for a second, saying oh, gosh, we were thinking it was Biddergy.
"We came up on the actual plane, which is actually just engulfed in flames. There were a few people there trying to do what they could do to get the flames out. We didn’t see a crash, but others said there were some Pfizer workers who saw a plane come down.
“We stopped but there wasn’t much (they could do), unfortunately.”
From Bill Evenboer, owner of Evenboer-Walton Realtors.
“I was coming west on I-94, saw the big black cloud of smoke and i was just pulling off onto Portage Road anyway, so I got off right there at Portage Road and seemed like 30 police cars and (emergency vehicles fire trucks and ambulances) came by. It just seemed at that point it was a plane crash.
"I pulled around the Stryker headquarters there and pulled back into their parking lot and stuff and just observed . . . (what was going on) . . . and could just see the plane sitting there with the blue tarp, but I was probably a good 3- to 400-yards away . . . and they were just tending to the plane . . . But it pretty much they closed Kilgore and it was lined with emergency vehicles. . . . I actually saw the big plume of smoke.”
Posts
1 comments:
unconfirmed, but a friend of mine who is a Aircraft Mechanic just informed me that the plane was just in the maintenance shop and this was it's first flight after being serviced. The engine quit on takeoff.
Post a Comment