|
Fire District 9 firefighters faced a number of challenges when
they responded to the crash of an Ameriflite cargo plane in the
hills north of the Valley last Saturday morning.
Firefighters responded shortly after 8 a.m. when they received
a 9-1-1 call from a witness near the scene of the crash. The witness
said he had heard the plane flying low and smacking into trees just
to the west of his property. The first challenge for firefighters
was the heavy fog that may have played a role in the crash. A farmer
in the area said the fog was so thick that he could hardly see the
front of his car while driving.
The plane apparently hit trees as it approached Felts Field. It
crashed into a gully about 50 yards from Lehman Road and about a
mile from the airport.
Firefighters responding to the scene found debris in the roadway
and a trail of broken trees to the crash site. The airplane, a twin-engine
Metroliner, was reduced to scrap and burned.
According to Mike Van Hill, District 9 operations officer, initial
access to the site was barred by a fence and locked gate, but his
brush firefighting truck was able to negotiate a gully and approach
the wreck. A short time later, the owner of the property, Dick Fraser,
who had been called by the witness, arrived on the scene to open
the gate.
"Access was spectacular," said Van Hill. "There
was a road right to the crash site."
Van Hill said the crash presented a new experience for most of
the firefighters.
"In my 26 years with the department, we've only had a couple
of airplane crashes and only one of them burned," he said.
"The fire problems, though, weren't unique. It was flammable
liquids and jet fuel, and we know how to deal with that."
He said the problem, however, was that firefighters are trained
to protect the evidence at the crash site and were reluctant to
fight the fire that was consuming both the skin of the aircraft
and the cargo. One of the firefighters, John Phillips, is also a
National Transportation Safety Board investigator. He gave the firefighters
approval to fight the fire.
Water supplies were an additional problem, Van Hill said, because
the brush truck was the only one capable of approaching the site,
and it held only 350 gallons of water. It had to leave and return
several times to refill its tanks.
Firefighters had to don breathing apparatus while hosing down the
wreckage. Van Hill said that the cargo appeared to be video tapes
and machines, probably being brought in to resupply stores in the
area. UPS officials later affirmed the plane was carrying 127 parcels
from Boeing Field to Felts Field. It was a regular cargo flight
that made the trip every Saturday morning, officials said.
The final sad task for firefighters, Van Hill said, was to extricate
the body of the lone pilot, who died in the crash.
"It's not a task that firefighters look forward to," he
said. "But they all know it's part of the job."
The body was turned over to the county medical examiner's office
for identification. He was identified as 32-year-old Thopmas A.
Richert of Kent, Wash. Medical examiners had to use dental records
to confirm his identity
NTSB investigators descended on the scene Saturday afternoon. They
removed most of the wreckage Sunday and took it to a hangar at Spokane
International Airport for a temporary storage until it's taken to
the Seattle area for inspection.
Lead NTSB investigator Steve McCreary said he and his team are
just at the beginning of the investigation. He said the official
cause of the crash probably won't be determined for another six
months as investigators look at all the factors. The on-site investigation
was completed Monday, however.
Click
here to...
Subscribe to the Spokane Valley News Herald
|
