By Garrett Cabeza / The Spokesman-Review
A 58-year-old aviation author, airport owner and real estate businessman who released a documentary this week about his nearly nine-month polar circumnavigation and peace mission flight was uninjured when he crashed his plane, dubbed “Citizen of the World,” Monday afternoon at Felts Field in Spokane.
Robert DeLaurentis, of Whidbey Island, was flying from his airport, DeLaurentis International Airport, in Oak Harbor, Washington, to Felts Field when he tried to use the throttle on his modified 1983 Gulfstream Twin Commander 900 as he was preparing to land Monday. But the throttle didn’t work, which he blamed on frozen engines from the cold temperature and moisture.
“Then I could feel the plane sinking and I thought, ‘OK, we’re gonna hit,’ ” DeLaurentis said. “And you always have that moment where you’re wondering what the next few seconds hold for you and it’s totally out of your control, so you’re kind of along for the ride in some ways, you know?”
He said the plane, which he has flown to 23 countries, crashed on its belly short of the runway and slid across the grass for several hundred feet. DeLaurentis, the only person on board, said he tried to put the plane into “thrust reverse,” to stop the plane from sliding, but that didn’t work either.
He shut everything off in the plane and watched the broken propellers continue to spin for a bit before getting out.
“I was still alive, and that was good,” DeLaurentis said.
He was uninjured, but his plane sustained “substantial” damage, according to the FAA’s preliminary incident report. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
Todd Woodard, airport spokesperson, said in a statement the plane crashed in the “Runway Safety Area,” which is “established for aircraft undershoots and overruns of the runway.”
DeLaurentis suspected his insurance company will declare the plane totaled and plans to display the fuselage as an exhibit at his airport, which is open to the public.
“One of the firemen said, ‘Oh, bad landing,’ ” DeLaurentis said. “And I responded with what all pilots say, which is, ‘Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.’”
DeLaurentis said he has a “perfect flying record” and has never crashed before. He’s flown by himself to 53 countries.
He said he was meeting friends in Coeur d’Alene to relax after nearly four years of filming, editing and producing the documentary “Peace Pilot,” which was released to the public Tuesday and is available on Apple TV, Google TV and Amazon. DeLaurentis wrote the associated book, “Peace Pilot: To the Ends of the Earth and Beyond,” which was released last year.
The documentary captures DeLaurentis’ 8-month, 23-day aerial peace mission in 2019 and 2020 to the South Pole and then the North Pole, a polar circumnavigation. He had already completed a solo equatorial navigation in a single-engine plane.
But, the pole-to-pole flight was much more difficult, in part because of the extreme temperatures, some reaching minus-75 degrees, DeLaurentis said. He said bursting fuel tanks and equipment failures also made the trek difficult and dangerous.
Besides the impressive flying feat and testament to persistence, the documentary centers on how to find world peace and the mantra, “One planet. One people. One plane.”
DeLaurentis said they interviewed several people and found that no matter their country of origin, religion, skin color or political affiliation, people desire the same things — peace, joy, love, financial security and safety.
He said the movie is spiritual.
“Imagine weaving around the planet and going to these different places and showing people that they’re more similar than they’re different, and doing it in a fairly cool fashion because that plane screamed coolness, right?” DeLaurentis said.
DeLaurentis has also authored, “Flying Thru Life: How to Grow Your Business and Relationships with Applied Spirituality,” and “Zen Pilot: Flight of Passion and the Journey Within.” He co-authored a trilogy of children’s books called “The Little Plane that Could” with author Susan Gilbert.
He’s also president of the DeLaurentis Foundation, which raises and distributes money for aviation-related charitable causes. He owns over 300 San Diego real estate units, according to his website, Flying Thru Life.
DeLaurentis said his plane, “Citizen of the World,” always looked out for him, including through the treacherous weather conditions and equipment failures of the polar circumnavigation.
Monday’s crash, he said, was the “completion of the mission.”
“It’s just a natural completion,” DeLaurentis said. “The plane finished its mission, and that was delivering me to the date of the documentary, which we think will be a big legacy piece.”
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