PW_Plack
Active Member
The annual Hillsboro airshow here in Oregon ended 30-minutes early today in a tragic crash. I was walking out through the hot pit to board a Piper Cherokee 140 for afternoon airborne traffic reporting duty. A 1951 Hunter Hawker fighter had been on static display. The pilot had just finished topping off his plane with Jet-A for the return home to California, when his request for a fly-by was approved.
It's not clear exactly what happened next, but after takeoff, the pilot flew a pattern and turned base over a residential neighborhood. He didn't make it back to the airport. The plane went down about 1.5 miles east of the airport, and burst into flames.
Witnesses in the neighborhood say the pilot appeared to be fighting to make an empty field, but crashed squarely into a private home. That building was obliterated, two neighboring homes badly burned. A fire official reported that the intense heat of the fire appeared to have completely melted the aircraft, and suggested that finding identifiable human remains might be difficult.
Fortunately, there appear to have been no injuries on the ground. The owner and sole occupant of the house which suffered the direct hit was reported by neighbors to be away at a garden show for the afternoon. (EDIT 7/19: The woman who lived in the home says she won a drawing at the garden show for a free bag of mulch, and was delayed while her car was loaded!) Residents of the other two damaged homes were also not at home.
Whatever is determined to be the cause, it's possible we just had our last Hillsboro airshow. Residential development has encroached on the airport in recent years. If nothing else, there may be some new restrictions on activities of non-performer pilots and their aircraft in the waivered airspace.
It's not clear exactly what happened next, but after takeoff, the pilot flew a pattern and turned base over a residential neighborhood. He didn't make it back to the airport. The plane went down about 1.5 miles east of the airport, and burst into flames.
Witnesses in the neighborhood say the pilot appeared to be fighting to make an empty field, but crashed squarely into a private home. That building was obliterated, two neighboring homes badly burned. A fire official reported that the intense heat of the fire appeared to have completely melted the aircraft, and suggested that finding identifiable human remains might be difficult.
Fortunately, there appear to have been no injuries on the ground. The owner and sole occupant of the house which suffered the direct hit was reported by neighbors to be away at a garden show for the afternoon. (EDIT 7/19: The woman who lived in the home says she won a drawing at the garden show for a free bag of mulch, and was delayed while her car was loaded!) Residents of the other two damaged homes were also not at home.
Whatever is determined to be the cause, it's possible we just had our last Hillsboro airshow. Residential development has encroached on the airport in recent years. If nothing else, there may be some new restrictions on activities of non-performer pilots and their aircraft in the waivered airspace.
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