WENATCHEE — Documents from the Federal Aviation Administration say the pilot of a Chelan Airways float plane that crashed into Lake Chelan — killing two people — was technically not qualified for positions he held at the time, and had his license suspended for six months after the crash.
The documents, provided to The Wenatchee World under a public records request, show 62-year-old Howard “Brick” Wellman is now allowed to fly commercial planes again.
An earlier report from the National Transportation Safety Board said Wellman had disconnected warning instruments telling him the position of the plane’s landing gear. The agency said the wheels were down — protruding from the plane’s pontoons — when the plane landed and flipped on the lake last May 17 at Stehekin.
Stehekin School Superintendent Roberta Pitts and William Stifter, a cardiologist from Spokane, drowned when the cabin filled with water. Wellman, Stifter’s wife and a teenage Stehekin girl survived.
The FAA documents say Wellman was not qualified to act as chief pilot or director of operations for Lake Chelan Airways.
Jeff Soehren, a co-owner of Lake Chelan Airways, tells the World that the airline had applied for and believes it had been approved for a “deviation” from the requirements for chief pilot and director of operations — two management positions that require a certain level of oversight experience.
Wellman’s suspension order was issued Oct. 28, and a notice of proposed civil penalty issued Nov. 19 to Lake Chelan Air Service, seeking $9,000 in penalties.
The notice states the company “did not have sufficient qualified management personnel to ensure the safety of its operations,” the World reported.
Soehern said the penalty is under negotiation.
The safety board report said Wellman told investigators he had disconnected the landing gear warning in the de Havilland DHC-2 because it kept coming on and became a nuisance during the flight due to turbulent air. He said he meant to reset it before landing but did not recall doing so.
The order suspending his license states Wellman “was careless or reckless.”
Suspension is less punitive than the FAA’s most severe penalty — license revocation.
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