New report gives clues in fatal plane crash in Marysville

Published 1:30 am Thursday, September 5, 2019

MARYSVILLE — A pilot may have been in the sky for less than 10 minutes before his small plane crashed into a field in Marysville last month, according to an initial report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Greg Capes, 64, died on impact. He owned a home in Frontier Airpark, a small community built around an airstrip north of Lake Stevens.

Capes took off from the private runway around 6:45 p.m. Aug. 14, according to the preliminary report made public in late August. He was flying a single-engine Murphy Moose built from a kit.

A final report has not been completed by the NTSB.

Capes did not file a flight plan. He was piloting the craft with an experimental certificate. The plane had a Vedeneyev M14-PF engine built in Russia, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Witnesses told investigators the plane was flying unusually low, and the engine made a sound like it was revving or misfiring.

In north Marysville, the plane sharply banked over a field. It looked to be out of control, eyewitnesses reported.

Capes’ aircraft crashed around 6:54 p.m. in the 15700 block of 51st Avenue NE, about a mile south of Arlington Municipal Airport.

Capes died of blunt trauma, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office.

He’d held a private single-engine pilot’s license since at least 2010.

The wreckage was moved to a secure place for further examination.

Meanwhile, investigators spoke with people who saw the accident.

“One witness stated that the airplane appeared to be in a nosedive, during which, it sounded like the pilot added full power,” the report says. “Shortly thereafter, she saw a cloud of dust.”

Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.