Early Report: Floatplane Crash on Anchorage Hillside
Floatplane crashed over Hillside after completing “low level, high speed” turns
|
Dave Brooks / KTUU
|
ANCHORAGE (KTUU) -
The floatplane that crashed over Anchorage’s Hillside neighborhood on
Saturday completed two “low level, high speed” turns shortly before
going down, according to a preliminary report by the National
Transportation Safety Board.
Investigators describe the aircraft as an “experimental
amateur-built” Polar Cub equipped with floats. The pilot and sole
occupant of the floatplane, identified by Anchorage police as
75-year-old James Hefty, was killed in the crash. No other injuries were
reported and the aircraft did not impact any homes.
At around 4:30 p.m., several witnesses in the Hillside area saw the
Polar Cub make two “low level, high speed, 360-degree right turns.”
“The witnesses said that the accident airplane’s first 360-degree
turn was accomplished at an altitude between 150 and 200 feet above
ground level,” NTSB wrote in the report. “But the second pass was much
lower. One homeowner stated that as the airplane passed over his home,
it was about 50 feet above his roofline.”
On the second turn, the plane banked at an
extremely steep angle before it pitched down and began a rapid nosedive,
the report says. The engine rpm increased significantly and the wings
leveled just before the planed impacted a group of small trees near a
home.
“During the collision sequence the airplane’s
floats were severed, and the airplane subsequently descended onto a
neighborhood road, coming to rest inverted,” investigators wrote.
The aircraft was completely destroyed in the crash and the wreckage was incinerated by an ensuing fire.
4 comments:
Always sad when a life is lost, and a plane destroyed. My prays to the pilot and his family.
Agreed, Rob; thank you.
Not good, and one wonders what the pilot was doing???
NFO - apparently he was "practicing" for a back-country insertion, or something like it, in the near future. Not sure why he thought it was a good idea to practice over a subdivision, though.
Post a Comment