PORT TOWNSEND – A 46-year-old Seattle pilot was injured Saturday morning when the plane she was flying into Jefferson County International flipped and crashed.
Karen Jane Souter was transported by an Airlift Northwest air ambulance helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle late Saturday morning.
Deputies said she had sustained head and facial injuries that appeared not to be life-threatening.
Harborview reported that she was not there Saturday evening.
Witnesses said that the 1940s-vintage single-prop four-seat Stinson descended over state Highway 19 for a landing on the eastern approach to the airport between 11 and 11:15 a.m.
They said that the aircraft touched down and skidded off the runway, flipping at least once into a grassy area before coming to rest near the middle of the runway.
B.J. Hallinan, co-owner of the airport’s fixed-base operation, Port Townsend Aircraft Services, said he was sitting at his desk when he heard the crash.
“She was on and off the throttle twice, then there was the nasty crumping sound none of us likes to hear,” Hallinan said.
Hallinan, an aviation mechanic, said he immediately shut off the fuel and power to the plane and he and Taracka walked Souter away from the wreckage.
No one else was on board.
Port Townsend pilot Richard Taracka, who was the first to reach the pilot after the crash, said he found her outside the wreckage, kneeling.
“She was pretty upset and her chin was bleeding,” said Taracka, adding that she could not talk.
The plane nose, wingtips, prop and landing gear were seriously damaged. The aircraft’s windshield was shattered.
A skid mark leading off the runway and gouges in the grass where the wings and prop hit led to the wreckage, which came to rest heading eastward.
Jim Phoenix, unit supervisor with the Seattle Flight Standards district office of the Federal Aviation Administration, was enjoying the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend when he was called to investigate. He had reached no conclusions on Saturday.
Weather conditions were mostly clear and dry but with a crosswind at the time of the crash, witnesses said.
Port of Port Townsend Larry Crockett said that it was the first crash in three years at the airport.
The one fatal crash at the airport, he said, involved an ultralight aircraft about eight years ago.
Most crashes Crockett has seen at the airport during his eight years at the port, which oversees airport operations, have involved pilots who forget to put down their landing gear.
Sgt. Ben Stamper, with Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said Souter belonged to a flying club and was believed to be flying in from Seattle’s Paine Field to meet a friend for breakfast at the Spruce Goose Cafe.
