Tiny commuter plane crashes in West Virginia
July 31st, 2009 - 4:28 pm ICT by adminRAVENSWOOD, West Virginia (BNO NEWS) — A small Sequoia Airways commuter plane crashed near Ravenswood in West Virginia on Thursday evening, officials told BNO News. One person was confirmed dead on scene.
The plane, which was carrying only the pilot, crashed about 12 miles northeast of Henderson, near the city of Ravenswood, at around 10 p.m. local time. It was a Cirrus SR-22 plane, which is a fixed wing single-engine aircraft. The plane was registered to Sequoia Airways LLC and was capable of carrying up to four people.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot after it took off from York Muni Airport in York, Nebraska at 5.45 p.m. CDT, according to FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac. It was originally bound for Eagle Creek Airpark Airport in Indianapolis, Indiana. “We believe the pilot became incapacitated,” she said. Air traffic controllers continued to track the aircraft and estimated the plane would run out of fuel near the city of Henderson, where it crashed in a rural area. Salac said the aircraft sustained “substantial” damage following the crash, but officials said there were no casualties on the ground as it crashed in a rural area. The pilot was pronounced dead on scene.
Unique about the small aircraft is the Cirrus Aircraft Parachute System (CAPS), which can be deployed during an emergency. The system will then slowly lower the plane with a parachute, but it was not activated before the crash.
“I heard a plane flying strangely low and off balance earlier,” a person who lives in the area wrote on his Twitter profile.
Official records showed the plane belonged to Sequoia Airways LLC, a small airline located in Avon, Indiana. The plane was build in 2008, with its first certificate issued on September 29, 2008. The certificate was still valid when it crashed on Thursday.
Details about the pilot were not immediately available. The local coroner’s office will identify the remains and notify relatives before announcing his identity.
A commuter plane is any commercial aircraft carrying less than 100 passengers.
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