WENATCHEE — A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board says the wheels were extended and locked when a float plane touched down and flipped on Lake Chelan earlier this month, killing two of the five people aboard.
The report says investigators who examined the wreckage found the wheels down and locked, and also found the control lever for the wheels in the down position.
The brief report, released Saturday, offers only investigator observations of the wreckage and witness accounts of the accident. It does not say the crash happened because the wheels were down, nor does it address whether the wheels were down because of pilot error or mechanical malfunction.
NTSB investigator Georgia Struhsaker said the final report on the crash is expected to be released in six to nine months.
The plane crashed May 17 as it was landing on the water at Stehekin, a remote community at the north end of the lake.
Stehekin School Superintendent Roberta Pitts, 67, and 64-year-old William Stifter, a cardiologist from Spokane and part-time Stehekin resident, drowned when the plane flipped and its cabin went underwater.
The Chelan Airways float plane had taken off from a paved runway at Lake Chelan Airport, about 50 miles from Stehekin.
Witnesses on shore told sheriff’s deputies they noticed the plane’s wheels were down as it descended for a landing and then abruptly nosed over.
Three people escaped: 16-year-old Stehekin resident Samantha Courtney; 60-year-old Patricia Stifter of Spokane; and the pilot, 61-year-old Howard Wellman of Chelan.
Pitts and William Stifter were trapped. Autopsies indicated they may have been unable to escape because of fractured ribs and other injuries.
Wellman, a licensed pilot since 1983, received certification in 2005 to fly float planes commercially, said Allen Kenitzer, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
FAA records show Wellman had 6,000 hours of flight time, including about 800 hours piloting float planes.
He had never had an accident or been cited for a safety violation, Kenitzer said.
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