Pilot killed in Bandon, Oregon, crash
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
By Carl Mickelson Staff Writer
Coos Bay World
www.theworldlink.com
BANDON, Oregon -- For the second time in less than two weeks a small plane has crashed on the South Coast of Oregon.
On Tuesday afternoon, Alan E. Menje, 54, of Bandon, Ore., died after the plane he was piloting crashed into a cranberry bog south of Bandon.
“Tentative reports indicate that the plane had possibly stalled while making a hard left turn,” said a Coos County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
The plane, a Piper Cherokee PA28-140, came to rest in the corner of a cranberry bog on the property of Chere Winters, just east of the intersection of Rosa Road and Orchard Avenue.
The Bandon State Airport is about three-quarters of a mile southeast of the crash site. Frank Crook, the owner of Frank's Flight Service who was Menje's flight instructor, said Menje had taken off about 15 minutes before the crash.
Emergency responders, including personnel from the Bandon Rural Fire Protection District, Bandon Police Department and Coos County Sheriff's Office, received the crash report at 12:53 p.m. When authorities arrived on scene, they found the aircraft engulfed in flames. Firefighters extinguished the fire and secured the scene for an investigation.
The white metal fuselage of the plane, twisted and charred, jutted out from the bog at a 45-degree angle. A large white metal hunk rested about 10 feet in front of the crumpled mass and other airplane debris appeared to be scattered nearby in the bog.
Bobby Wilson, 19, was first on the scene and was about 30 yards from his parents' driveway on Rosa Road when he and his girlfriend, Michelle Silva, noticed the “very low-flying plane.”
They heard what sounded like an explosion.
“We pulled in the driveway and I ran out there to see if anyone was OK, but it was totaled,” Bobby said.
His mother, Sherrie Winters, daughter-in-law of Chere Winters, was in one of three homes the family owns on the property.
“I heard a really super-loud noise, like an engine, like a weed-eater, only it was like 59 times louder, and then I just heard a boom, and then seconds later an explosion,” she said.
She went outside to see what was going on when her husband, Stacy, at another house on the property, called to say he had not been able to get through to 911 because of a busy signal.
“My husband called me and said a plane had crashed into bog No. 2, and that I needed to call 911,” she said.
Stacy Winters said the plane crashed less than 100 yards from the house he was in.
“The sound of a motor just kept getting louder and louder and louder,” he said. “I was getting on my coat and hat to go outside and then there was this super hard thud - it shook the floor in the house - and a split second later there was an explosion and it shook the windows. It was immediate. I thought a plane went down somewhere in the area and I went outside to look for smoke. I didn't have to look far - it was in plain sight from the house.”
He and Bobby met at the crash site.
“It was burned down at that point,” Stacy said. “The explosion was immediate and all the fuel burned. The pilot was obviously dead and there was nothing we could do.”
Stacy Winters said Bandon Fire Chief Lanny Boston, who lives right down the road, arrived to begin to put out the fire. Sherrie Winters said shortly after the crash, Tom Hutton, pastor of the Pacific Community Church, arrived and led a group of 10 people in a prayer at the crash site.
Stacy Winters said he did not think the plane's engine stalled. Two other eyewitnesses told him the plane was heading over town and started to bank south, but the bank was too sharp and the plane starting losing altitude.
“I know he didn't stall,” Stacy said. “I heard high RPMs like he was trying to pull out of it.”
At around 2:40 p.m., a team from the Coos County Medical Examiner's office arrived and removed Menje's body from the wreckage. Coos County Sheriff's Office Deputy Adam Slater said officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were en route to begin their investigation today.
According to Crook, Menje was a student pilot who had been flying for about two years. Crook said Menje had the skies above Bandon to himself at the time and that flying conditions were good.
“He had reported that he was in pattern, I heard him call, everything was fine,” Crook said. “I have no idea what happened or what caused it to crash.”
On Dec. 2 a homemade plane piloted by Dr. Charles “Chuck” Holloway, 62, of Coos Bay, crashed just offshore north of Horsfall Beach. His body was found last week.
A second occupant, Daniel B. Kelley, 38, of North Bend, also is presumed dead. However his body has not been recovered.
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