DIAMOND POINT — A preliminary report on a two-plane collision at the east end of the Diamond Point runway Tuesday should be out next week, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said.
“It will provide an overview of the basic facts of the accident,” said Wayne Pollack, who is based in Los Angeles but is overseeing the investigation.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is assisting by gathering initial interviews of pilots and witnesses at the scene of the crash that occurred shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday.
What is known, according to witness accounts, is that a Piper Cherokee 180 flown by Dennis Rech of Olympia came in too low and his landing gear struck a berm between the east end of the runway and Diamond Point Road.
Rech’s aircraft spun and struck the right wing of a Cessna 150 student-piloted by Theodore Calderone who was waiting at the end of the runway with passenger and flight instructor Ernie Hanson, both of Diamond Point, to take off.
No one was injured in the crash that seriously damaged the right wing of the Cessna and ruptured the fuel tanks of the Piper when part of its landing gear collapsed, forcing a partial belly landing.
About 30 gallons of fuel was spilled from the Piper, but Diamond Point station firefighters with Clallam County Fire District 3 quickly responded, spraying fire retardant foam on the fuel to prevent it from igniting.
“We have established that the Piper pilot was on approach to landing,” Pollack said.
“There are some issues that the pilot has raised relating to his touching down short of the runway.”
Pollack said it appeared the plane on the ground awaiting takeoff was “holding clear of the runway, awaiting arrival of the landing aircraft.”
“The flight instructor said he saw the plane descend and fall short of the runway. The aircraft with the flight instructor was not departing. He was standing clear of the runway.”
Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle, said no FAA or NTSB investigators were called in because there were no fatalities in injuries in the collision.
On Tuesday, a Clallam County deputy from the Blyn station was on the scene, taking pilot and witness statements and photos of the crash scene.
The deputy reported his findings to the FAA, Fergus said, and they were passed along to the National Transportation Safety Board — or NTSB.
“We do not make determination of cause. The NTSB handles that,” Fergus said.
Pollack said it could take up to nine months to conclude the investigation. The transportation safety board will issue a final report describing the cause of the crash and who was at fault.
“The Piper aircraft was taken to a recovery facility nearby and is under NTSB control,” Pollack said, declining to give the location.
The Cessna remained at the airport, he said.
Diamond Point Airport is a private facility near the northeast tip of Miller Peninsula in far East Clallam County, overlooking Discovery Bay and near the Jefferson County line.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
