14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Monday, July 23, 2012 in Tonasket, WA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 05/08/2014
Aircraft: JEFFKO GLASAIR, registration: N743CA
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
The pilot departed on the cross-country flight in the experimental airplane without filing either an instrument or visual flight plan. The route of flight would have taken him over high mountain passes, which were obscured by clouds at the time. An alert notice (ALNOT) was issued after family members reported that he had not arrived at his planned destination. A search and rescue mission was subsequently initiated, and for the following 6 days multiple search sorties were performed. To date, the airplane has not been found.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
The cause of the accident is undetermined as the airplane has not been located and remains missing.
On July 23, 2012, an experimental amateur-built Jeffko Glasair, N743CA, did not arrive at its planned destination of Sequim Valley Airport, Sequim, Washington. The pilot/owner was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The certified flight instructor was presumed to have sustained fatal injuries, with unknown damage to the airplane. The cross-country flight departed Tonasket Municipal Airport, Tonasket, Washington, about 0830. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the departure airport, and no flight plan had been filed.
On July 23, at 1520, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an alert notice (ALNOT) for the missing airplane after family members reported that it had not arrived at its planned destination. A search and rescue mission was subsequently initiated by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The owner of the airplane had recently purchased a TSO-C126 (406 MHz) Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), however, it could not be determined if the unit had been installed at the time of the accident. No ELT signal was received during the search and rescue activities; additionally, attempts to locate a signal from the pilot's cell phone utilizing network-based location analysis were unsuccessful.
The presumed route of flight would have taken the airplane over the Cascade Mountain Range, which according to the Seattle Sectional Aeronautical Chart, had an obstacle clearance (Maximum Elevation Figure - MEF) in the area of 10,500 feet msl. The closest FAA radar sensors were located in Seattle and Spokane, Washington, about 150 and 120 miles respectively, from the departure airport. Examination of radar data did not reveal any targets pertinent to the accident flight.
The search and rescue mission was terminated at 1700 on July 29, after 100 sorties had been completed in the Cascade Mountain area utilizing fixed wing and rotorcraft assets.
FAA records indicated that the airplane was built by the pilot, and issued its airworthiness certificate in October 2008; no maintenance records were recovered.
The 72-year-old-pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine land, single-engine sea, and instrument airplane. He additionally held a certified flight instructor (CFI) certificate with single-engine land ratings, issued in 1970. His third-class medical certificate was issued on October 27, 2011, with the limitation that he must wear corrective lenses for near and distant vision. On his medical certificate application he reported a total flight experience 1,200 hours, with 40 hours in the prior 6 months.
According to a representative from Lockheed Martin Flight Service, the pilot did not request any weather services. Additionally, there was no record of him obtaining a weather briefing from any of the Direct User Access Terminal (DUAT) providers.
An automated surface weather observation at Omak Airport (KOMK), Omak, Washington, (elevation 1,305 feet, 16 miles south of the departure airport) was issued 23 minutes after the presumed departure time. It recorded calm wind, 10 miles visibility, with an overcast ceiling at 9,500 feet, temperature at 17 degrees C, dew point 09 degrees C, and an altimeter setting at 30.06 inches of mercury.
At 0956, a surface weather observation was issued by Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Oak Harbor, Washington (KNUW), (elevation 47 feet, 129 miles west of the departure airport). It indicated wind from 160 degrees at 10 knots, 9 miles visibility, with few clouds at 1,200 feet, broken 2,600 feet and overcast 3,400 feet; temperature at 13 degrees C, dew point 20 degrees C, and an altimeter setting at 30.20 inches of mercury.
An AIRMET for mountain obscuration was current for the area between the time of departure and approximate landing. See the public docket for a full weather report.
http://www.homebuiltdirectory.com
http://registry.faa.gov/N743CA
NTSB Identification: WPR12FAMS1
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Monday, July 23, 2012 in Tonasket, WA
Aircraft: JEFFKO ED & CLAIRE GLASAIR, registration: N743CA
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On July 23, 2012, an experimental amateur-built Jeffko Glasair, N743CA, did not arrive at its planned destination of Sequim Valley Airport, Sequim, Washington. The pilot/owner was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. The certified flight instructor was presumed to have sustained fatal injuries. The cross-country flight departed Tonasket Municipal Airport, Tonasket, Washington, about 0830. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the departure airport, and no flight plan had been filed.
On July 23, at 1520, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an alert notice (ALNOT) for the missing airplane after family members reported that it had not arrived at its planed destination. A search and rescue mission was subsequently initiated by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The search and rescue mission was called off at 1700 on July 29, after 100 sorties had been completed in the area of the Cascade Mountains, utilizing fixed wing and rotorcraft assets.
FAA records indicated that the airplane was issued its airworthiness certificate in October 2008.
Provided photo
Claire
and Ed Jeffko, Tonasket. Ed Jeffko’s plane apparently went down over
the North Cascades July 23. Neither he nor the crash site were ever
found.
TONASKET — Impassioned pilot and former city councilman Ed Jeffko hasn’t been seen since his kitplane went down last summer, but the Jeffko name is still synonymous with community service in this quirky town 20 miles from the Canadian border.
His wife, Claire Jeffko, is continuing her own long-standing reputation for community service in this home to the Barter Fair and Garlic Festival, even as she continues to grieve the absence of a man she says so loved flying that “If he could have been a bird, he would have been.”
Claire has filled her husband’s spot on the city’s Civil Service board and continues to hold up her half of the couple’s spirit of volunteerism.
“This is our town. This is our community,” she said during a recent phone interview. “You have to give back.”
Ed and the single-engine Glasair two-seater that he and Claire built from a kit went missing July 23 when he was on his way to Sequim to pick a grandson up and take him back to Tonasket for the summer — a family tradition.
The plane apparently went down in the heavily wooded, rugged terrain of the North Cascades. Rescue agencies called off the search after more than 2,000 hours, including 104 flyovers of Jeffko’s presumed flight path. Neither Jeffko nor the crash site has ever been found.
“Had he survived, he’d still be flying,” says Claire who commemorated the couple’s 34th wedding anniversary this month. “I married a pilot. You just can’t take that away from a person. We knew the risks.”
In a touching letter about her and Ed’s passion for flying, Claire writes that their grandchildren weren’t thrilled to learn that the new Glasair plane had only “grandma and grandpa seats.” The kids were accustomed to the couple lugging bicycles and “assorted stuff” over the mountains when they flew in for a visit.
Speaking about his absence is still hard.
“The not knowing is the worst possible part of all this, other than his dying,” she said. “We were a team. We worked together for 34 years.”
From the letter, she said “We may never find him. He and that plane were one. But I will search for him the rest of my life.”
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com
I saw his airplane that day at about 3:50 pm flying by my house when I realized they were looking in the wrong area a week later I tried telling them but they did not want to talk to me.I went to the Everett police department they called someone and gave them my phone number but they didn't call me. So the next day I found the search and rescue number and called them no one picked up the phone so I left a message and then the next day I did the same thing again and no one called me back either day. I also left a message similar to this one on I believe it was something like the Squim gazzette and they removed my post there was nothing bad about it. I remembered the post before mine it was still there but mine was gone .They apparently did not believe me either I wish I would have done more but I figured they knew about where to look for him. I thought they would at least call me back to hear what I have to say. This bothers me every day
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