[UPDATE 5:19 P.M.: MORE PHOTOS/INFO FROM SCVFD] BREAKING NEWS: PLANE CRASH ON USAL ROAD IN NORTHERN MENDOCINO
https://kymkemp.com/2024/03/08/breaking ... mendocino/
Link has lots of pics.
Emergency personnel are responding to the report of a plane crash in the northwestern corner of Mendocino County around 1:30 p.m. on March 8.
Scanner traffic indicates a report has been made of a plane crash with a possible explosion in the 76000 block of Usal Road, north of Whale Gulch School. Even though this is in Mendocino County, the quickest access is through Humboldt County. As such, an all-call has been issued for multiple Southern Humboldt agencies including Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue. Additionally, City Ambulance and Reach air services have been requested to what is being dubbed as the Whale Incident.
Emergency dispatch has relayed that a Usal resident is reporting that the plane crash occurred on her driveway. A neighbor, according to the resident, witnessed parachutes being deployed. Subsequent transmission indicates occupants are stuck in trees via the [plane’s] parachute. At this time, the total number of occupants, and injuries, if any, are unknown.
First responders and emergency vehicles are en route. Please use caution if in the area.
Please remember that information gathered from initial reports is subject to revision as more facts become available.
Update 2:05 p.m.: Scanner transmission indicates residents have spotted two occupants suspended [in the plane about] 20 meters above the ground, hanging from a tree canopy.
Update 2:19 p.m.: The three ejected occupants of the downed plane are reported to be out of the tree with no injuries, according to scanner traffic. The involved parties have been contacted by Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department personnel.
Emergency personnel have yet to reach the crash debris field, per radio transmission.
Update 2:29 p.m.: The three occupants have been described as two adults and a juvenile. They are reported to be uninjured except for some minor scratches.
HCSO personnel are now at the crash site.
Update 2:38 p.m.: Two sources are now reporting that the juvenile who safely ejected from the plane was approximately 5 years old.
Additionally, a nearby resident was able to capture these images of the aircraft prior to the crash.
peach and white parachute above forest near plane
[Photos by Kristina Carrara]
peach and white parachute above forest near plane
Update 2:46 p.m.: According to scanner traffic, the FAA has been in contact with local officials, stating that logs indicate two adults, and two children were believed to be onboard the aircraft.
Update 2:59 p.m.: Redheaded Blackbelt has obtained flight information from FlightRadar24.com. The plane, a 2004 Cirrus SR22, departed Shelter Cove airport at approximately 1:15 p.m. The crash appears to have occurred south of Shelter Cove, on Usal Road, approximately five minutes later. The flight radar image below is prior to the last flight radar path that shows the plane dropping off the radar before Yellow Road.
UPDATE 5:19 p.m.: Shelter Cove Fire Department’s spokesperson Cheryl Antony confirmed that two adults and one child were on board. There is no missing child that the FAA were concerned about.
UPDATE: The downed aircraft, a Cirrus SR-22, was equipped with the first and only aviation parachute system approved by the FAA. The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) has saved over 200 lives since it’s inception.
PP
Another Cirrus SR22 CAPS Save
Re: Another Cirrus SR22 CAPS Save
MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL (WITH INNOVATIVE PARACHUTE): PLANE CRASH IN NORTHERN MENDOCINO CO LEAVES MAN, WOMAN, & CHILD WITH ONLY MINOR INJURIES
https://kymkemp.com/2024/03/09/miraculo ... -injuries/
Link has lots of pics and map.
Yesterday, about 1:30 p.m., a small plane, a 2004 Cirrus SR22, encountered trouble shortly after takeoff and crashed in a wooded area of northern Mendocino County near Whale Gulch. Remarkably, everyone on board, including a very young child, walked away with only minor injuries. In part, this appears to be because the plane was equipped with the only entire plane parachute system approved by the FAA.
Local resident Amber Rashall spoke to us by phone of the day’s events. She said she heard an unusual sound about 1:30 p.m. “I was sitting inside my house, and I heard very loud kind of like boom, noise,” Rashall explained. Upon investigating, she saw a plane not far away with a parachute slowing its descent. However, after she ran inside to grab a phone to call for help, when she returned, the aircraft had vanished from sight, leading her to think it had crashed into a valley.
After calling and reporting the incident, Rashall went to her sister-in-law’s home nearby. There a neighbor came by telling them that the crash had happened not far from their driveway.
Upon reaching the crash site, the group discovered the aircraft on the ground, its parachute tangled in the trees above. “We ran down there…and there’s a plane, you know, probably 15 feet…down the little hill off of our driveway,” Rashall said. She explained that she soon learned that the plane had “floated down” attached to a parachute with the occupants–two adults and a child–still inside. The parachute had eventually hung up in a tree. “They were there for probably a few minutes and then it fell to the ground,” Rashall told us.
The plane landed in brush upside down, but the three passengers were fortunate to escape with minor injuries. “They voiced to us that that was the worst part of the crash, just the falling to the ground, but they were really lucky…the little girl had not a scratch on her,” Rashall said.
The small community there helped them get out of the plane, Rashall told us. “Basically me and my sister-in-law and two of our neighbors kind of sat with them and helped to get their stuff out of the plane,” she told us. “The plane was starting to burn a little bit.” So the local residents helped the passengers get their stuff away from the plane. Rashall explained that though the plane did smoke, it didn’t catch fire.
The Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Department and the Shelter Cove Fire Department arrived soon after as they are located relatively nearby. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies eventually arrived at the remote scene outside of their county to secure the situation until Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies could arrive at the incident as the latter cannot drive directly to that remote area but instead has to travel through a portion of Humboldt County to get there.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, though Rashall mentioned that the pilot did say he had been trying to avoid crashing into the ocean. She said that the passengers were from Santa Rosa and had spent the night in Shelter Cove before heading south from the airport there and then crashing near Whale Gulch.
In the coming weeks, there will likely be an investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for looking into non-military aircraft accidents to determine their cause and to issue safety recommendations that can prevent future accidents. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates and oversees all aspects of American civil aviation, also might be interested given that this is a plane equipped with the unique safety feature of a parachute system for the entire aircraft.
PP
https://kymkemp.com/2024/03/09/miraculo ... -injuries/
Link has lots of pics and map.
Yesterday, about 1:30 p.m., a small plane, a 2004 Cirrus SR22, encountered trouble shortly after takeoff and crashed in a wooded area of northern Mendocino County near Whale Gulch. Remarkably, everyone on board, including a very young child, walked away with only minor injuries. In part, this appears to be because the plane was equipped with the only entire plane parachute system approved by the FAA.
Local resident Amber Rashall spoke to us by phone of the day’s events. She said she heard an unusual sound about 1:30 p.m. “I was sitting inside my house, and I heard very loud kind of like boom, noise,” Rashall explained. Upon investigating, she saw a plane not far away with a parachute slowing its descent. However, after she ran inside to grab a phone to call for help, when she returned, the aircraft had vanished from sight, leading her to think it had crashed into a valley.
After calling and reporting the incident, Rashall went to her sister-in-law’s home nearby. There a neighbor came by telling them that the crash had happened not far from their driveway.
Upon reaching the crash site, the group discovered the aircraft on the ground, its parachute tangled in the trees above. “We ran down there…and there’s a plane, you know, probably 15 feet…down the little hill off of our driveway,” Rashall said. She explained that she soon learned that the plane had “floated down” attached to a parachute with the occupants–two adults and a child–still inside. The parachute had eventually hung up in a tree. “They were there for probably a few minutes and then it fell to the ground,” Rashall told us.
The plane landed in brush upside down, but the three passengers were fortunate to escape with minor injuries. “They voiced to us that that was the worst part of the crash, just the falling to the ground, but they were really lucky…the little girl had not a scratch on her,” Rashall said.
The small community there helped them get out of the plane, Rashall told us. “Basically me and my sister-in-law and two of our neighbors kind of sat with them and helped to get their stuff out of the plane,” she told us. “The plane was starting to burn a little bit.” So the local residents helped the passengers get their stuff away from the plane. Rashall explained that though the plane did smoke, it didn’t catch fire.
The Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Department and the Shelter Cove Fire Department arrived soon after as they are located relatively nearby. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies eventually arrived at the remote scene outside of their county to secure the situation until Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies could arrive at the incident as the latter cannot drive directly to that remote area but instead has to travel through a portion of Humboldt County to get there.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, though Rashall mentioned that the pilot did say he had been trying to avoid crashing into the ocean. She said that the passengers were from Santa Rosa and had spent the night in Shelter Cove before heading south from the airport there and then crashing near Whale Gulch.
In the coming weeks, there will likely be an investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for looking into non-military aircraft accidents to determine their cause and to issue safety recommendations that can prevent future accidents. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates and oversees all aspects of American civil aviation, also might be interested given that this is a plane equipped with the unique safety feature of a parachute system for the entire aircraft.
PP