Small plane crashed in field near Hillyard; pilot sustained only minor injuries

A pilot walked away with only minor injuries Friday after his small, two-seat airplane apparently had mechanical problems and crashed in a field just east of Hillyard.

Spokane police Officer Scott Hice, who observed the crash, said he was getting into his car at the North Precinct around 1:30 p.m. when he heard what sounded like an aircraft with mechanical problems overhead.

“I heard him before I saw him. I looked up and he was flying almost over the top of us. I said, ‘Man, that guy’s flying low,’ ” Hice said. “You could see he was fighting it.”

The airplane was banking toward a large vacant field east of Market Street and north of Wellesley Avenue. “I knew he wasn’t going to make it out of that field,” Hice said.

Hice first saw the plane flying north. He banked to the south and turned west before it went down.

“On the last turn, he kind of flared … and then goes down,” he said. “Obviously, the way he put it down, he knew what he was doing.”

Hice said he ran toward the downed craft while he radioed for help. Hice lost sight of the plane and didn’t know that the aircraft had landed in a depression in the field.

“I thought for sure he was gone. I was scared to death I would run up on a fire and someone was burning,” Hice said.

Instead, Hice saw a man walking his way. Hice asked him “Are you the pilot?” The man said yes. “He said, ‘I’m in the Air Force.’ It was pretty crazy.”

Hice then walked the pilot to an area near the intersection of Wellesley Avenue and Ferrall Street and waited for an ambulance, which was already en route. He said the pilot was 31 years old, and suffered cuts on his face, arm and left leg.

“I was just hoping he wasn’t dead,” Hice said. “I looked up, and he was walking away from it like nothing happened.”

Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer identified the plane as an RV 8, a tandem two-seat, single-engine, low-wing aircraft sold by kit aircraft manufacturer Van’s aircraft. The pilot was on his way to Deer Park, Schaeffer said.

The plane is registered under Jonathan Liard, of Stafford, Virginia. According to records with the National Traffic Safety Board, Liard became the registered owner as of July 3.

Also, the same plane suffered a similar crash on Sept. 19, 2005, according to the NTSB.

In that case, the pilot lost engine power during a landing in Sonoma, California, and landed in a vineyard adjacent to the runway.

A later investigation determined the plane’s “master power switch” was coming apart. Failure of that switch could result in loss of ignition power to the plane’s engine, according to the NTSB website.

On Friday, neighbor Christina Kern said planes taking off from Felts Field regularly fly over the area near Wellesley and Ferrall where the plane crashed. She said she heard the plane before she saw it and it was so low she knew the pilot was in trouble.

“I heard spitting and sputtering,” she said. “That’s when I saw smoke.”

She said the pilot was heading north but turned, apparently trying to return to Felts Field, before turning back to aim for the empty field.

She said she was expecting an explosion when the plane crashed into the field. “With all this dried grass, I’m really glad he didn’t go up,” Kern said.

The area, which is near Felts Field, has seen a fairly regular series of crashes over the past few years.

In December, the pilot of a twin-engine aircraft crash landed at Felts Field. The aircraft touched down without its landing gear deployed. The pilot, the sole occupant of the aircraft, was uninjured in the crash.

In May 2015, two men were killed when their Piper PA-46 Malibu crashed into the Spokane River shortly after takeoff while conducting a post-inspection test flight. The National Transportation Safety Board later ruled control cables on the plane that control banking and turning were improperly installed.

Also in 2015, in February, another Piper Malibu crashed near the Hamilton Street bridge shortly after takeoff from Felts Field. It was later determined the plane had been refueled with jet fuel. The pilot, who was pulled from the plane’s wreckage alive but in serious condition, later succumbed to his injuries.