3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018
Report: medical issues likely caused fatal plane crash
Plane plunged
into the river in
March 2016
By ANDY MATARRESE
The Columbian
Medical problems may
have contributed to the loss of
control in a March 2016 small
plane crash into the Colum-
bia River that killed two Van-
couver, Washington, residents,
according to investigators at
the National Transportation
Safety Board.
John McKibbin, the pilot,
likely lost control during a
low-altitude maneuver to
spread a passenger’s hus-
band’s ashes. Investigators
determined that the most prob-
able cause of the crash was
McKibbin’s medical issues,
which included an insuffi-
ciently treated sleep disorder,
severe heart disease, depres-
sion and possible lingering
concussion damage.
McKibbin, 69, and his pas-
senger, Irene Mustain, 63,
were killed when McKib-
bin’s World War II-era plane
crashed into the river near
Astoria on March 23, 2016.
The two took off from Pear-
son Airfield in McKibbin’s
plane, a 1941 North American
AT-6A military trainer, with
the intent to spread Mustain’s
husband’s ashes over the river.
Their plane went down around
4 p.m.
According to the final
report on the crash, the
maneuver to spread the ashes
required the pilot to slow
down and make a banking
turn. The move allows a pas-
senger to open the canopy and
hold out and open a bag car-
rying the ashes, so they can
disperse in the wind.
Witnesses described seeing
the plane flying low and slow
National Transportation Safety Board
The wreckage of a small plane crash in the Columbia River near Astoria in 2016.
over the river, then rolling left
before diving into the water,
according to investigators.
An examination of the
wreckage found the rear slid-
ing canopy door was most
likely open at the time of the
crash. Also, investigators did
not find the ash dispersal bag,
leading them to think the crash
likely occurred during the
ash-spreading process.
Based on his most recent
logs, according to the NTSB,
McKibbin had more than
1,200 hours of total flight
time, and one previous inci-
dent in 2004 where his plane
stalled on takeoff in windy
conditions.
No one found anything in
the plane’s airframe or engine
that would have created a
problem, the NTSB said.
Crash investigators did find
several maintenance discrep-
ancies, namely that the plane
was 10 months overdue for an
annual inspection and McK-
ibbin was several months late
on a flight review, but none
of those discrepancies would
have resulted in what wit-
nesses saw, investigators said.
McKibbin’s autopsy found
that he had severe, and appar-
ently undiagnosed, coronary
artery disease, leaving him
susceptible to heart attack or
stroke.
A look at his medical
records found that he was also
using a sleep aid, one which
can lead to increased risk of
arrhythmias in patients people
with cardiac disease.
The review of his med-
ical records also found that
he had been treating fatigue
caused by sleep apnea with
a continuous positive airway
pressure, or CPAP, machine,
but data from the machine
showed he did not use it with
the frequency and duration
required by the Federal Avia-
tion Administration.
Due to a sports injury,
McKibbin also experienced
post-concussion symptoms
in 2014 and 2015 significant
enough that he stopped flying,
driving or working for several
months, investigators found.
Those symptoms were
thought to be resolved, but
investigators noted that he
hadn’t undergone any formal
medical evaluation.
He also dealt with a depres-
sion disorder from at least
1999. The records show a
remission in symptoms, and
a cessation of medication,
between 2002 and 2004. How-
ever, he told a personal phy-
sician in 2014 that he had
continued to use the antide-
pressant sertraline, sold as
Zoloft, and had been buying it
from India out of concern for
FAA regulations.
The drug is not generally
considered sedating, accord-
ing to the investigators. Anti-
depressant drug use is usually
disqualifying for pilots’ medi-
cal certification purposes, but
the FAA authorizes pilots on
some antidepressants, includ-
ing sertraline, to fly on a case-
by-case basis.
He did not report the use of
the sleep aid or antidepressant
to his FAA medical examiner,
investigators said.
“The pilot had a number
of medical conditions which
could have contributed to him
becoming inattentive, dis-
tracted, or debilitated during
flight,” the investigators wrote
in their report. “He could have
had a stroke or sudden cardiac
event leading to a loss of con-
trol. Further, the negative cog-
nitive effects from chronic
fatigue resulting from his inad-
equately treated sleep disor-
ders, chronic depression, and
neurocognitive deficits from
postconcussive
syndrome
would have increased the like-
lihood of the pilot failing to
effectively manage airplane
control while either setting up
for, or during performance of
the ash dispersal maneuvers.”
The flight was on what
would have been Mustain’s
late husband’s 69th birth-
day. Terry Mustain was an Air
Force pilot and Vietnam vet-
eran, and the flight was char-
tered to spread his ashes along
the Pacific coast near a beach
house the couple owned in
Ocean Shores, Washington. If
the weather looked bad, they
were to try spreading the ashes
over the river instead.
McKibbin was a private
pilot and prominent Clark
County resident. He taught at
Columbia River High School
and spent two terms as a state
representative for the 49th Leg-
islative District before going
on to become a Clark County
commissioner. He left elected
office in 1990 to work in real
estate and development, and
also served in numerous vol-
unteer and leadership capac-
ities for local organizations,
including the Greater Vancou-
ver Chamber of Commerce,
Leadership Clark County and
Identity Clark County.
Oregon pyrosome population growing again
Creatures thrive
in warmer
ocean waters
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
By STEVE BENHAM
KATU
Whales in Puget Sound.
Researchers ID whales
by genetic bread
crumbs left behind
By JES BURNS
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
Researchers at Oregon
State University have worked
out a way to detect and iden-
tify whales long after they
move on — just by sampling
the water.
When whales swim they
leave behind a plume of
genetic material in the envi-
ronment: skin, poop and
bodily fluids. If you know
what to look for, you can use
that DNA to figure out what
kind of whale went by.
Scott Baker is associate
director of the Marine Mam-
mal Institute at Oregon State
University’s Hatfield Marine
Science Center. His research
team tested this idea on orcas
in the Salish Sea, collecting
and testing water samples in
their wake.
“We were quite surprised
to find that even up to two
hours afterwards — and that
was the limit of our sam-
plings, we were still able to
detect that the whales had
passed through that body of
water,” Baker said.
The research was pub-
lished Friday in the journal
Frontiers.
Environmental DNA isn’t
new technology. It has been
used widely in freshwater
systems to detect endangered
and invasive species and to
keep tabs on fish popula-
tions. But efforts to use this
technology in the ocean are
much newer.
“Application of eDNA to
the marine environment is
now trying to catch up,” he
said.
Scientists have major
questions about how the
genetic material will move
and how quickly it will
degrade and disperse.
This discovery about the
persistence of the DNA in
seawater opens the possibil-
ity of detecting and studying
other marine species, includ-
ing those that are among the
most elusive on the planet.
‘Application
of eDNA to
the marine
environment
is now
trying to
catch up.’
Scott Baker
associate director of the
Marine Mammal Institute at
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Baker says a DNA library
exists for the nearly 90
known species of whales,
dolphins and porpoises. It
was developed to monitor
the whale meat market in
Asia — and make sure the
varieties being sold were as
advertised.
With this bank of genetic
information in hand, Baker
says doing these kinds of
tests in open-ocean envi-
ronment is the next step for
refining the technology.
“Species like whales,
whale sharks, sea turtles …
these megafauna are actu-
ally pretty good candidates,”
Baker said. “That being said,
the ocean is a big place and
the ocean is thin soup.”
They’re back. A lot of them.
And they’re reproducing.
The invasion of the pyro-
somes, gelatinous, translucent
tube-like creatures ranging
in size from less than an inch
to a foot or more, continues
in force off the coast of Ore-
gon for a second year, baffling
scientists.
The creatures, made up of
individual zooids — small,
multicellular organisms —
normally reside in warmer
waters, like the tropics, and
usually don’t travel far-
ther north than the waters off
Southern California.
But last spring, scientists
pulled pyrosomes out of the
Pacific Ocean off the coasts
of Oregon and Washington
state by the tens of thousands.
The pyrosomes also wreaked
havoc with the nets of com-
mercial anglers, and they
washed ashore by the millions,
littering beaches.
Scientists just finished
two research cruises aboard a
National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration fisher-
ies survey vessel, Bell M. Shi-
mada. Oregon State University
research assistant Jennifer
Fisher was aboard a cruise in
early March. She said in the
seven or eight years she’s been
sampling the seas off Oregon
and California, she’s maybe
seen the creatures twice. But
the last two years have been
different.
“We saw a range of sizes,
which to me indicates they are
reproducing,” she said about
last month’s sampling runs.
“To me that indicates what-
ever conditions they need,
they’re doing well and they’re
surviving, clearly, and they’re
flourishing.”
NOAA research fisheries
biologist Laurie Weitkamp,
Laurie Weitkamp/NOAA Fisheries
Pyrosomes that marine scientists pulled out of the Pacific
Ocean off the coasts of Oregon and Washington state sit
in a tray.
who went on a separate Shi-
mada cruise about a week
later, said researchers were
pulling enough pyrosomes out
of the sea to fill up buckets 5
gallons each.
Whatever caused these
“pyrosome blooms” has so
far stumped researchers, but
“something happened,” said
Weitkamp. “We’re all kind of
scratching our heads trying
to figure out what it was that
happened.”
Even though scientists hav-
en’t confirmed it, they suspect
that warmer water brought the
creatures here.
Ric Brodeur, also a NOAA
research fisheries biologist
based in Oregon, raised two
possibilities.
“(They) may have arrived
during the unusual warm blob
we had in 2015 or came north
with the large El Nino in 2016
and seem to be sticking around
even though the conditions
appear to be close to normal,”
he said.
Brodeur, as well as several
other scientists, wrote a paper
this winter on the pyrosome
invasion that was published by
the North Pacific Marine Sci-
ence Organization.
In it the scientists said the
pyrosome bloom of 2016-17
was expected to last into this
year but noted that future cli-
mate change may also deter-
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
mine the presence of pyro-
somes in the Northwest.
“Projected climate change
in the coming decades may
lead to anomalous events
such as the pyrosome bloom
becoming more common in
the future, requiring continu-
ing monitoring to assess its
impacts,” they wrote.
Besides being a nuisance
to commercial anglers, scien-
tists are concerned about the
impact the pyrosomes will
have on the oceanic food web.
“They are so numerous and
can consume a lot of plank-
ton, so we are concerned about
them competing with things
like krill and copepods that are
the normal base of the food
web,” said Brodeur.
Tiny crustaceans like cope-
pods, which are also high con-
sumers of phytoplankton, can
make good meals for forage
fish, which are then eaten by
fish like salmon. The copepods
that live off the coast of Oregon
are good sources of fat in the
food web.
But scientists have found
that pyrosomes are likely not,
which suggests that they won’t
be a nutritious source of food
for any fish that eat them.
For example, scientists are
finding that fish like rockfish are
making meals out of pyrosomes
instead of feasting on their nor-
mal diet of krill and shrimp.
“They’re thinking they’re
eating hamburgers and instead,
they’re eating celery — even
worse than celery,” Weitkamp
said.
While she doesn’t think the
rockfish will die from eating
the pyrosomes, Weitkamp said
their growth will slow down.
That may mean in the long
run, less bounty for commer-
cial anglers.
There is no shortage of ques-
tions about the pyrosomes’s
impact on the ocean ecosystem.
“We really don’t understand
what their role is in the food
web in this area,” said Hilarie
Sorensen, a graduate student
at the University of Oregon
who’s also studying the pyro-
somes. “In such high numbers,
could they potentially make
a dent in the phytoplankton
populations?”
Astoria Warrenton
Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival
Presenting Sponsor
Celebrate the delicious
bounty of the Oregon Coast!
April 27, 28 & 29
AstoriaCrabFest.com
HOURS & ADMISSION
Friday: 4-9pm · $15/Adult
Saturday: 10-8pm · $15/Adult
Sunday: 11-4pm · $10/Adult
Visit website for Senior,
Youth & Military pricing.
LOCATION
Clatsop County
Fairgrounds
Limited parking.
Shuttles from lodging or
park & ride locations.
VOLUNTEER: Join our team & earn free admission.
Sign up online.