NTSB Identification: WPR14FA362
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Tuesday, September 02, 2014 in Neihart, MT
Aircraft: CESSNA 177B, registration: N34880
Injuries: 1 Fatal,3 Serious.
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 September 2, 2014, about 1230 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 177B, N34880, impacted terrain about 5 miles southeast of Neihart, Montana. There were four soles on board; the private pilot and two passengers were seriously injured and one passenger was fatally injured. The airplane sustained substantial damage during the accident sequence and subsequent post impact fire. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight and no flight plan had been filed. The flight originated from Great Falls International Airport (GTF), Great Falls, Montana at about 1200.
The pilot reported to local law enforcement that he was flying in a valley when he observed rising terrain ahead. He attempted to climb over the ridge, but the airplane wouldn't climb. The pilot turned the airplane towards the valley when the airplane struck trees and descended to the ground.
The airplane has been recovered to a secure location for further examination.
Rachel "Ladybug" Lukasik
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A collection of folding tables bearing silent auction items stood on parking lot asphalt, attracting casual attention. Around 40 people, many with various amounts of gray hair, sat and stood in clumps, chatting. And, nearby, stood two neatly angled rows of parked motorcycles, awaiting their riders.
The occasion was a poker run and pool tournament to raise money benefiting Rachel “Ladybug” Lukasik, an 11-year-old girl badly injured in a fiery single-engine plane crash Sept. 2 near Showdown Ski Area in the Little Belt Mountains. It was organized by several Great Falls motorcycle clubs, including the Electric City Hermanos, in which Lukasik’s father, Rod “Senator” Lukasik, serves as president.
The crash also took the life of Susan Majerus, the girl’s grandmother and Rod Lukasik’s mother.
“He’s our brother and he’s our friend,” said Tyler “Gandhi” Long, the president of the Banditos. Lukasik, he said, is a single father who works as a a janitor for the Great Falls School District.
Rachel, he said, suffered burns over 40 percent of her body and is expected to be hospitalized for months. She was flown by Mercy Flight to a burn unit in Salt Lake City in the hours following the crash.
“She’s doing really good,” Long said. “She’s a fighter.”
All proceeds from Sunday’s event were going to Rachel’s cause, he said.
According to a Go Fund Me page seeking to help the Lukasiks, accessible at gofundme.com/e5k9ss, the girl and her grandparents had gone on a sightseeing trip the day after Labor Day when the crash occurred. While staying with his daughter in Salt Lake City, the page says, Lukasik will be away from work, causing the family to worry about losing their home or having their power disconnected as a result of unpaid bills.
As of early Sunday afternoon, the Go Fund Me page had raised $3,130 of its $10,000 goal.
Authorities have not yet released an official narrative or the results of a pending investigation into the cause of the crash, which occurred at the edge of the King’s Hill Winter Recreation Area parking lot a quarter-mile off of Highway 89 shortly after the single-engine Cessna Cardinal took of from Great Falls.
Long said that Majerus gave her life helping the girl escape from the wreckage.
Majerus was remembered in the days following her death for her work promoting the Monarch-Neihart History Foundation, which has been working to restore the 112-year-old Monarch Train Depot.
Another Hermanos-sponsored poker run in July raised money for the preservation effort, specifically a push to save a 1940s-era train caboose by moving it from Belt to the Monarch depot.
Majerus “was just the nicest gal,” said Codi “Baby Huey” Heikkila, a Hermanos member who works with Rod at the school district. When you saw her, he said, “she made sure you got a hug.”
Rod Lukasik is in a tough situation, he said. “Bury your mom one day, then go back to the hospital with your daughter.”
“He’s a single dad,” Heikkla also said. “He’s doing his best.”
Given the cost of Lukasik’s expected recovery, Long said another fundraiser is in the works for October. “It’s going to be an ongoing thing,” he said.
http://www.gofundme.com/e5k9ss
http://www.greatfallstribune.com
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