Thunder Gull Odyssey, N562TB: Fatal accident occurred November 19, 2020 near Arlington Municipal Airport (KAWO), Snohomish County, Washington

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.

https://registry.faa.gov/N562TB

Location: Arlington, WA 

Accident Number: WPR21FA057

Date & Time: November 19, 2020, 17:09 Local 

Registration: N562TB

Aircraft: Blevins Kamron Odyssey 

Injuries: 1 Fatal

Flight Conducted Under: Part 91: General aviation - Personal

On November 19, 2020, about 1709 Pacific standard time, a Blevins Kamron Odyssey, N562TB, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Arlington, Washington. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. 

Preliminary ADS-B radar data indicated that the airplane departed Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW), Tacoma, Washington, about 1556, and turned westbound followed by a turn and a north-northeast track for about 50 nm until it reached an area near Lake Cavanaugh where track data discontinued briefly. After track data was reacquired, it showed the airplane in a tight 360° right turn, then it continued southwest for about 5 nm before turning right to the west and then north. The airplane then entered a right spiral type turn until track data was lost at 1709.

Aircraft and Owner/Operator Information

Aircraft Make: Blevins Kamron 

Registration: N562TB

Model/Series: Odyssey

Aircraft Category: Airplane

Amateur Built: Yes

Operator:

Operating Certificate(s) Held: None

Operator Designator Code:

Meteorological Information and Flight Plan

Conditions at Accident Site: 

Condition of Light:

Observation Facility, Elevation: KAWO,137 ft msl

Observation Time: 16:56 Local

Distance from Accident Site: 9 Nautical Miles

Temperature/Dew Point: 8°C /5°C

Lowest Cloud Condition: 

Wind Speed/Gusts, Direction: 9 knots / , 130°

Lowest Ceiling: 

Visibility: 10 miles

Altimeter Setting: 30.32 inches Hg

Type of Flight Plan Filed:

Departure Point:

Destination:

Wreckage and Impact Information

Crew Injuries: 1 Fatal 

Aircraft Damage: Destroyed

Passenger Injuries: 

Aircraft Fire: None

Ground Injuries: 

Aircraft Explosion: None

Total Injuries: 1 Fatal

Latitude, Longitude: 48.2979,-122.1021 (est)

Those who may have information that might be relevant to the National Transportation Safety Board investigation may contact them by email eyewitnessreport@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov.

Ronald Borovec

ARLINGTON, Washington — A Bothell aviation enthusiast died in a small-plane crash Thursday north of Arlington, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

Ronald Borovec, 73, was identified as the deceased. He was flying an amateur-built, single-engine Odyssey aircraft.

A friend of the pilot first notified the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office around 8:30 p.m. that Borovec was overdue.

According to FlightAware, a database that tracks flights, the plane departed Tacoma Narrows Airport around 4 p.m. Thursday. The northbound two-seat plane was tracked until after 5 p.m., after traveling about 100 miles.

The friend gave deputies an approximate location of the plane — a patchwork of logged forest east of Highway 9. Around 10 p.m., the sheriff’s office helicopter SnoHawk1 located wreckage and the deceased pilot off N Cedarvale Loop Road.

Borovec died of blunt-force trauma, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Friday. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

The pilot was a longtime advocate of experimental aviation. In the early 1990s, he published bi-monthly Roadable Aircraft Magazine. He was a past president of an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) chapter in Seattle.

Fellow EAA chapter member Ron Wanttaja knew Borovec for 35 years. He said Borovec was meticulous and excelled at understanding the mechanical side of aircraft. Wanttaja recalled annual seminars Borovec gave at the national EAA convention on “roadable” aircraft, which can also be driven on a street — essentially a flying car.

“He never built one himself, but he was a real aficionado of that,” Wanttaja said.

In a 1994 Christian Science Monitor article, Borovec discussed the conveniences and challenges of the futuristic automobile.

“’Landing in a driveway is very appealing, (but) these things just don’t land any place,” he said.

As the article explained, the downdraft would wreak havoc on debris below.

“The grass might survive, but the flowers won’t,” Borovec quipped.

There are risks inherent in flying such planes.

“Homebuilt aircrafts are built by amateurs, maintained by amateurs and quite often even designed by amateurs, so that is all part of the sport,” Wanttaja said. “We try to reduce the accident rate as well as we can, but it is going to be higher than production airplanes.”

Just before the accident, Wanttaja said, Borovec was getting a transponder installed in Tacoma.

The National Transportation Safety Board described the plane that crashed as an “experimental” aircraft. NTSB investigators were arriving on scene Friday.

An NTSB official said a preliminary report should be available within a few weeks. The full investigation could take more than a year.

Borovec was public in his support for Democratic candidates in recent elections. He sent The Daily Herald occasional letters to the editor encouraging engagement with elected officials and supporting worldwide action to fight diseases.

In May, he wrote The Herald urging representatives to favor a global health approach during COVID-19 recovery.

On social media, he wrote that he worked as an engineer for a dental equipment manufacturer in Bothell.

“As the United States and the world face the COVID-19 threat, we must not forget our partners in low-income countries,” he said.

Thursday’s crash was the second fatal aviation accident in the region this month. On Nov. 11, two men died in a small plane crash near Langley on Whidbey Island after an apparent engine failure.

https://www.heraldnet.com