Beech V35, N5938S
Piper PA44, N3062H
WILSONVILLE -- The twin-engine Piper flown by a Beaverton flight instructor and a Hillsboro pilot under instruction dived down on the smaller aircraft, smashing it to pieces and sending its pilot crashing to his death, police said Wednesday.
Capt. Ken Summers, Yamhill County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said witnesses to Tuesday's midair collision northwest of Aurora State Airport told investigators that the larger Piper PA-44 Seminole was executing training maneuvers in the area, making a series of rapid ascents and descents shortly after 4 p.m., when it came down upon a Beech Bonanza V35 that had taken off from the Twin Oaks Airpark in Hillsboro.
The Piper's underside then struck the Beech.
"It was literally cut in two," Summers said.
The Beechcraft -- in pieces -- then careened out of control and spiraled into ground. Pilot Stephen L. Watson, 58, of Beaverton, a retired Oregon State Police sergeant, was killed.
The crippled Piper then limped to Champoeg State Heritage area, where it made an emergency landing in an open field just west of the park. The plane, registered to Hillsboro Aviation, appeared to have damaged landing gear.
Flight instructor Travis Thompson, 31, of Beaverton and student Henrik Murer Kalberg, 23, a resident of Holmestrand, Norway, living in Beaverton, walked away uninjured. Social media websites identify Kalberg as a student, runner, tennis player and instrument-rated general aviation pilot.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board interviewed the men Wednesday but declined to disclose what they learned. Thompson did not return a call requesting comment. The Oregonian was unable to reach Kalberg.
On Wednesday, investigators began what could be a yearlong slog -- collecting evidence and testimony, then analyzing the results in hopes of reconstructing the events.
The NTSB, aided by investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration, Oregon State Police and sheriff's deputies from Yamhill and Marion counties concentrated Wednesday on interviewing witnesses to the collision and the crash. Clackamas County deputies submitted reconnaissance video they shot while flying the sheriff's office airplane over the crash site. FAA investigators sorted the radio and radar data from Portland International Airport
Investigators also collected, bagged and documented parts of the Beech Bonanza, turning them over to a company the NTSB contracted to help with crash reconstruction. The wings, engine and cockpit came down near Wilsonville road, just west of Earlwood Road. A tail section was found 40 feet up in a tree.
Joshua Cawthra, who is leading the NTSB investigation, stressed that the area of the collision is not under formal air traffic control, and the pilots were flying by "visual flight rules."
"Part of the role of a pilot is to see and avoid other aircraft," Cawthra said.
Cawthra said initial information indicated that the neither plane suffered from mechanical failure, though a witness, Dan Sullivan of Salem, who was camping at Champoeg park, said he heard the Beech Bonanza sputter and backfire before recovering.
The NTSB will issue a preliminary report within five days. The final investigation could take six months to a year.
Piper PA-44 Seminole, N3062H made an emergency landing after a mid-air collision.
Debris from Tuesday air collision taken by Chris Havel, Communications Coordinator for the Oregon Parks & Recreation Department.
A 58-year-old Beaverton man perished in Tuesday’s fatal midair crash outside of Wilsonville.
The man, Stephen L. Watson, was alone in the fixed-wing single-engine aircraft, according to his wife, Gale Watson. The Federal Aviation Administration aircraft database lists the plane as a V35 model manufactured in 1966.
The plane Watson was flying collided with a fixed-wing twin-engine Piper aircraft that’s registered to Hillsboro Aviation, located at 2831 N.E. Cornell Road. That plane was manufactured in 1978, according to the federal aircraft database.
The two people in the Piper landed the crippled plane at the Champoeg State Heritage Area and managed to walk away without needing medical treatment. Their names were not available this morning. Max Lyons, the president of Hillsboro Aviation, was in a meeting this morning with the survivors and was not immediately available for comment.
Watson was listed in a national pilot database as a flight instructor. For the past two years he kept his plane at Twin Oaks Airpark, a small family-run facility in Hillsboro, said manager Danny Stark.
"He loved to fly," Stark said. "Most of the time he flew by himself. He had a good cross-country airplane."
Stark said Watson took off about 2:30 p.m., about 20 minutes before the crash. He said that many people might consider the 1966 an antique but that the aircraft was in excellent mechanical condition.
"That's the kind of guy he was," Stark said.
A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, Keith Holloway, said a federal investigator is at the scene of the crash this morning.
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A white-knuckle emergency landing at Champoeg State Heritage Area saved the lives of two people aboard a small plane Tuesday after a midair collision northwest of Aurora State Airport.
The damaged two-engine plane limped into an open field just west of the park and touched down safely. The pilot and a passenger emerged shaken but uninjured. They refused medical treatment and walked away.
The second plane, a smaller single-engine model, spiraled down in a fiery crash north of Wilsonville Road, killing at least one person.
None of the occupants was identified.
Peter Asai of Springfield was camping at Champoeg with friends when he heard a loud noise shortly after 4 p.m.
"I heard this loud 'BAM!' overhead, like cars colliding," Asai said. "So I look up, and there's a white and turquoise small plane, and a larger dark plane -- and a big cloud of debris and fluttering paper."
Asai said he saw one plane "spiraling out of the sky without a tail."
The more damaged plane crashed in a stand of mature maple and fir trees across the Willamette River from the park, off Wilsonville Road, just west of Earlwood Road. "A huge brown cloud came up above the treeline, just like a column of dirt billowing into the air," Asai said.
A Champoeg Road resident looked up as soon as he heard the collision.
"I heard a 'POP!' and looked up and saw one of the planes falling," said Wesley Coulter, who lives close to the park. "It started spiraling downward and accelerating."
While in midair, the plane then broke into three pieces. The tail and a large piece of metal broke from the fuselage, Coulter said.
Late Tuesday, Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree said there were some indications that a second person may have been aboard the plane that exploded on impact, but the wreckage was burning, making it difficult for emergency responders to approach.
Crabtree said deputies were able to track the plane's owner through a partial tail number in the wreckage. However, he said the name would be withheld until the family had been notified.
Federal Aviation Administration investigators and deputies from Yamhill and Marion counties secured the scene and planned to remain onsite overnight. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to launch an investigation Wednesday.
Crabtree said the severely damaged plane shed parts for miles, creating a debris field stretching from the initial collision to the impact site. Part of the plane's fuselage landed south of the Willamette River, with other parts landing north of the river.
Wreckage was scattered across three areas of the park, according to Chris Havel, spokesman for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Havel said 40 to 50 people were at the park at the time of the crash, but no one on the ground was injured. A plane seat landed near the park's campground, and other debris hit a black Ford F-350 truck owned by Diane Sitton of Sherwood.
Witnesses near the site heard, saw and felt the crash.
Robert Nelson, who was home with his wife on Wilsonville Road, said he was certain the collision was an earthquake.
"The whole house shook, the dishes rattled, and I thought it was the big one," Nelson said.
Neighbor Barbara Forbes heard what sounded like a plane sputtering just before the floor of her home began to shake.
"I went to look out on the river because often there are planes landing there, but I didn't see anything there," Forbes said. "Then I went out to my front yard and saw that there were cars that were backed up (on Wilsonville Road) and I knew something was wrong."
Forbes said she walked down the road and helped a neighbor direct traffic out of the area, including giving directions on how to get to Newberg without going back to the highway.
"Our goal was to get people to slow down, turn around before they careened into each other," Forbes said.
Authorities closed Champoeg park during their investigation. Meanwhile, traffic on Wilsonville Road was diverted north on Earlwood Road, around the crash site.
Initial reports of the collision were picked up in radio messages intercepted by the Portland International Airport tower. Air-traffic officials then relayed the reports to emergency dispatchers in Clackamas, Marion and Yamhill counties at 4:19 p.m.
Scott Conyers, who lives near Champoeg Park, said good weather lures pilots who take off from Aurora State Airport and follow the scenic Willamette River down the valley.
"On a sunny day," Conyers said, "it's just like a highway."
Reporters Everton Bailey Jr. and Steve Mayes contributed.
Witness describes plane spiraling out of the sky without a tail
Peter Asai of Springfield was camping with friends at Champoeg State Heritage Area west of Wilsonville when he heard a loud "Bam!, like cars colliding."
"So I look up and there's a white and turquoise small plane, and a larger dark plane, and a big cloud of debris and fluttering paper."
Asai said one of the planes was "spiraling out of the sky without a tail."
Asai followed the spiraling plane as it dropped behind trees in a wooded area north of the park. "A huge brown cloud came up above the treeline, just like a column of dirt billowing into the air, with pieces of debris rolling out."
Federal aviation authorities confirmed that one of the planes was able to land safely, with both occupants uninjured, at Champoeg State Heritage Area. The other crashed across the Willamette River, off Northeast Wilsonville Road, west of Earlwood Road. One person was confirmed dead in the crash.
Nearby, Robert Nelson was at his home in the 35000 block of Wilsonville Road, just north of the Willamette River, Tuesday when he heard what he thought was an earthquake.
"The whole house shook, the dishes rattled and I thought it was the big one," he said.
A neighbor, Barbara Forbes, heard what sounded like a plane sputter just before the floor of her home began to shake.
"I went to look out on the river because often there are planes landing there, but I didn't see anything there," she said. "Then I went out to my front yard and saw that there were cars that were backed up (on Wilsonville Road) and I knew something was wrong."
Forbes said she walked down the road and helped a neighbor direct traffic out of the area, including giving directions on how to get to Newberg without going back to the highway.
"Our goal was to get people to slow down, turn around before they careened into each other," Forbes said.
Reporter Everton Bailey Jr. contributed to this report.
WILSONVILLE -- Authorities confirmed at least one fatality in a plane crash west of Wilsonville, following a mid-air collision northwest of the Aurora State Airport this afternoon.
The other plane in the collision landed safely with two people avoiding injuries.
Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree said one plane crashed in a stand of mature maple and fir trees north of the Willamette River, off Wilsonville Road, just west of Earlwood Road. He said emergency responders were not yet sure whether anyone else was aboard the plane when it went down.
"We aren't sure, quite frankly, if there were more people on the plane at this point," Crabtree said.
Crabtree said the plane apparently broke up mid-air, leaving a debris field miles long, stretching from the collision to the crash.
He said part of one plane's fuselage landed south of the Willamette River, with another part landing north of the river.
Crabtree said the other plane in the collision sustained much less damage and made a safe emergency landing in Champoeg State Park, on the Marion County side of the Willamette. He said two people were aboard the plane and emerged uninjured.
"They're OK," he said.
Names of the victim and other people involved were not yet available.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation.
Robert Nelson, who was home with his wife on the 35000 block of Wilsonville Road, said he was certain the plane collision it was an earthquake.
"The whole house shook, the dishes rattled and I thought it was the big one," Nelson said. "We had someone here cleaning the carpet, he left the house and called us back saying the police blocked off Wilsonville Road because a plane crashed."
Champoeg State Park has been closed. Meanwhile, traffic on Wilsonville Road has been diverted north on Earlwood Road, around the crash site.
Initial reports of the collision were picked up in radio messages intercepted by the Portland International Airport tower. Air-traffic officials then relayed the reports to emergency dispatchers in Clackamas, Marion and Yamhill counties at 4:19 p.m.
NEWBERG, Ore. -- Two small planes collided in mid-air over the Newberg area late Tuesday afternoon, sending one crashing to the ground, officials said.
The pilot of the second plane managed to make an emergency landing in Champoeg State Park, according to Capt. Ken Summers with the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office.
Summers said there were survivors in the plane that made the emergency landing but it did not appear that anyone survived the other crash.
"The plane in Yamhill County is absolutely totally destroyed. It’s just a burned patch in the woods,” Summers said.
He said the crash scene was located in a heavily wooded area between the Willamette River and the highway. The plane crash also ignited a fire, but it has been extinguished, Summers said.
Witnesses reported an explosion and a huge column of thick, black smoke just after 4 p.m., Monday on a tree farm located at 35150 Wilsonville Road. Others reported seeing a plane spiraling to the ground and debris flying into Champoeg State Park.
A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board told KGW this was an "active NTSB investigation" involving two general aviation airplanes.
The Newberg Fire Department, Yamhill County sheriff's deputies and Oregon State Police responded to the scene.
Champoeg State Park has been closed as a safety precaution.
WILSONVILLE -- Federal aviation authorities confirm that one of the planes in a mid-air collision this afternoon northwest of Aurora State Airport was able to land safely.
The other plane crashed across the Willamette River, off Northeast Wilsonville Road, west of Earlwood Road, where emergency crews are converging.
"One airplane landed safely, but the other crash," said Allen Kenitzer, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. "This is all the information we have at this time."
At least one report from the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office indicates one plane sustained less damage in the collision and subsequently landed safely at Champoeg State Park. However, that remains unconfirmed.
Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree said he has been briefed on the incident, he still is sorting out the facts.
One of the planes is thought to have broken up in the collision, with one wing coming down in Champoeg State Park and the fuselage crashing north of the Willamette River off Wilsonville Road, west of Earlwood Road.
There is no indication whether pilots or passengers were injured in the collision or the crash.
Sgt. James Rhodes, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said radio reports from the Portland International Airport tower were relayed to emergency dispatchers at 4:19 p.m.
The Newberg Fire Department, Yamhill County sheriff's deputies and Oregon State Police are responding.
WILSONVILLE -- Yamhill County authorities confirm that two small planes collided northwest of Aurora State Airport this afternoon, sending at least one of them crashing to the ground west of Wilsonville.
Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree said he has been briefed on the incident, saying that emergency crews still are trying to sort out the accident.
"I am headed there right now," Crabtree said.
One of the planes is thought to have broken up in the collision, with one wing coming down in Champoeg State Park and the fuselage crashing north of the Willamette River off Wilsonville Road, west of Earlwood Road.
The other plane is said to have sustained less damage, but no further information is available. One unconfirmed report said the plane was able to land safely.
There is no indication whether pilots or passengers were injured in the collision or the crash.
Sgt. James Rhodes, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said radio reports from the Portland International Airport tower were relayed to emergency dispatchers at 4:19 p.m.
"The first report said a wing from one plane was on one side of the Willamette River, with the rest of the plane on the other side," Rhodes said.
Search and rescue crews are looking in the Champoeg Park campgrounds, where some wreckage is reported to have fallen.
The Newberg Fire Department, Yamhill County sheriff's deputies and Oregon State Police are responding.
NEAR NEWBERG, Ore. – Two planes collided in midair Tuesday afternoon and went down near Newberg, according to the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office.
One plane was able to land safely in Champoeg State Park and the second plane crashed in the area of the 35000 block of Wilsonville Road nearby and across the Willamette River from the first location, said Capt. Ken Summers with the sheriff's office.
The sheriff’s office says there are survivors at the Champoeg State Park location but is not sure about the Wilsonville Road location.
It is not known at this time where the planes originated.
Champoeg State Park is one of the most popular campgrounds in Oregon because of its proximity to Portland. It is also a historical site that draws tourists. During the summer months, the campground fills up quickly. It is unknown how many people are staying there this week.
Initial reports by emergency dispatchers indicate wreckage from at least one of the planes may be in Champoeg State Park, west of Wilsonville. The other is thought to be in the 35300 block of Wilsonville Road, near Earlwood Road.
No information is available about injuries to pilots or passengers.
Sgt. James Rhodes, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said radio reports from the Portland International Airport tower were relayed to emergency dispatchers at 4:19 p.m.
"The first report said a wing from one plane was on one side of the Willamette River, with the rest of the plane on the other side," Rhodes said.
The Newberg Fire Department, Yamhill County sheriff's deputies and Oregon State Police are responding.
NEWBERG — An airplane reportedly crashed south of Newberg in the 35000 block of Wilsonville Road about 4:30 p.m. today, according to the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office.
A second plane may have crashed in the area of Champoeg Park, the sheriff's office said.
"I'm going 90 mph trying to get through traffic and I can't talk," Sgt. Steve Warden of the sheriff's office said.
An incident command post has been established and Wilsonville Road is closed in the area of Rennie Road, according to Yamhill Communications Agency radio traffic.
The pilot of the second plane managed to make an emergency landing in Champoeg State Park, according to Capt. Ken Summers with the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office.
Summers said there were survivors in the plane that made the emergency landing but it did not appear that anyone survived the other crash.
"The plane in Yamhill County is absolutely totally destroyed. It’s just a burned patch in the woods,” Summers said.
He said the crash scene was located in a heavily wooded area between the Willamette River and the highway. The plane crash also ignited a fire, but it has been extinguished, Summers said.
Witnesses reported an explosion and a huge column of thick, black smoke just after 4 p.m., Monday on a tree farm located at 35150 Wilsonville Road. Others reported seeing a plane spiraling to the ground and debris flying into Champoeg State Park.
A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board told KGW this was an "active NTSB investigation" involving two general aviation airplanes.
The Newberg Fire Department, Yamhill County sheriff's deputies and Oregon State Police responded to the scene.