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From the Eugene Register-Guard:
Plane crash leaves 1 dead, 1 injured
By Jim Feehan
The Register-Guard
Published: Monday, August 28, 2006
ELMIRA - A vintage biplane crashed Sunday shortly after taking off from a private airstrip, killing the passenger and injuring the pilot.
The two have not been identified but were both from Florence, the Lane County Sheriff's Office said.
Their plane took off about 2 p.m. from a grass strip near Suttle and Evers roads, about two miles northwest of Veneta, and turned back toward the field for unknown reasons.
It struck the roof of a house about 250 feet from the airstrip, and then hit two parked cars as it crashed to the ground. No one in the house or on the ground was injured, Deputy Matt Keetle said.
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The passenger, a woman seated in front, was pronounced dead at the scene. The pilot, a man, was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center. The extent of his injuries was not known but they were not considered life-threatening.
Local residents and medical personnel sought to give aid to the two.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the crash scene. Keetle said the fatal crash was the first in 35 years for the airstrip, which opened in 1969.
Phil Writer, a pilot and neighbor who has lived along the airstrip for eight years, identified the plane as a 1925 Travel Air.
The pilot took off from the south heading north up a slope, Writer said.
"I knew during the takeoff he was having problems," he said. "He never got up to flying speed ... It's just one of those tragedies."
As a precaution, deputies evacuated two nearby houses because of fuel spilling from the aircraft, Keetle said.
The residents were later allowed to return.
Susan McCoy, a lifelong resident who lives about a half-mile from the airstrip, said she lives in a "bit of fear" living so close to the low-flying planes.
"With the fuel spilled, a lot of kindling wood nearby and especially with this breeze, it could be potentially dangerous," McCoy said.
The airstrip and about six homes and hangars that parallel the runway are on private property.
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