Steven Caldwell killed in crash of his award-winning Glasair II
RG
The Kit-Built Grand Champion winner at this year's EAA
AirVenture at Oshkosh crashed on Thursday morning, killing the
owner and pilot, Steven Caldwell. Caldwell was well known in the
experimental aircraft community after having won awards at all the
regional and national air show competitions in which he had entered
his aircraft.
Caldwell was flying at his uncontrolled home airport in
Hermiston (OR), buzzing the field and flying up and down the
runway. An eyewitness, James Kirby of Beaverton (OR) said he saw
Caldwell buzz the airport building and perform a series of manevers
and turns, making high speed passes over the runway, at altitudes
Kirby estimated to be no more than 25 feet.
After making a final pass with his smoke system turned on,
Caldwell went into a vertical climb, then appeared to stall and
begin a spin towards the ground. Kirby watched as the aircraft
disappeared below the horizon. "I figured he would pull out of it
before he hit the ground," he told the Hermiston Herald. "About a
half-second later, we heard a thump."
There was no explosion after the crash, and Kirby didn't realize
the airplane had in fact gone down. "It didn't register that he
crashed till the smoke came up," he said.
Airport Manager Susie Rawe said that Caldwell had not filed a
flght plan because he wasn't flying to another airport. "He was
just doing some beautiful day recreation flying," she said.
According to Rawe, Caldwell flew his airplane weekly.
In a profile that the Hermiston Herald wrote about Caldwell back
in October, he stated that he was a retired boat builder, and had
run Caldwell's Satellite TV and Video in Hermiston for seven years.
After he retired, he began homebuilding aircraft as a hobby. The
hobby expanded to custom building kit aircraft under the name
Compex Aircraft.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the accident.
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 706C
Make/Model: EXP Description:
GLASAIR
Date: 10/14/2004 Time: 1603
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury:
Fatal Mid Air: N Missing:
N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
City:
HERMISTON
State: OR Country: US
DESCRIPTION
ACFT STALLED AND CRASHED 1/2 MIL3 WEST OF THE AIRPORT, THE
ONE PERSON ON
BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED AND THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED,
HERMISTON, OR
INJURY DATA Total
Fatal: 1
# Crew: 1 Fat:
1 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
WEATHER: METAR KHRI 141553Z AUTO 13004KT 10SM CLR 11/09
A3021
OTHER DATA
Activity: Pleasure Phase:
Unknown Operation: General
Aviation
Departed: HERMISTON,
OR
Dep Date: 10/14/2004 Dep. Time: 1545
Destination: HERMISTON,
OR
Flt Plan: NONE Wx
Briefing: N
Last Radio Cont: UNK
Last Clearance: UNK
FAA FSDO: PORTLAND, OR
(NM09)
Entry date: 10/15/2004
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