NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
NTSB report details eclipse plane crash near Madras
Pilot failed to
maintain speed
while landing and
stalled, safety
board says
By KYLE SPURR
EO Media Group
BEND — Witnesses
feared the worst moments
before a fatal plane crash in
August 2017 involving a Cal-
ifornia man who was on his
way to Madras for the total
solar eclipse.
Several people watched as
the plane banked to the left
with its wings perpendicu-
lar to the ground like it was
in an airshow, but then dove
straight down toward a can-
yon near the Madras Airport,
according to statements in a
final report released last week
by the National Transporta-
tion Safety Board.
Flames and a plume of
smoke rose from the canyon
crash site. The pilot, Mark
Rich, 58, of Menlo Park, Cal-
ifornia, died in the crash.
His single-engine Wheeler
Express, a plane that he built,
was destroyed.
Griffin Deitz, a witness
who was rock climbing in the
area during the crash, told a
safety board investigator the
plane was unable to pull out
of a dive.
“I saw the plane disap-
Photo contributed by Laura Rich
Laura and Mark Rich pictured on a beach in Southern California. Mark Rich died in a plane
crash Aug. 19, 2017 in Madras.
pear behind some rocks that
blocked my view of the south
side of the canyon,” Deitz
said, “and then I saw a mas-
sive fireball.”
Several witness state-
ments led the safety board to
conclude Rich failed to main-
tain adequate speed while
attempting to land, which
caused the plane to stall. He
was then unable to pull up
from a near-vertical descent at
an altitude too low to recover.
The final report detailed
the circumstances leading
to the fatal crash at 1:52 p.m.
Aug. 19, 2017.
Rich made a reservation at
the Madras Airport to arrive
at 2 p.m. Aug. 19 and leave
Aug. 21, the day of the total
solar eclipse. He planned to
camp in Madras and partic-
ipate in Oregon Solarfest,
a gathering at the Jefferson
County Fairgrounds celebrat-
ing the eclipse.
The Madras Airport used
a temporary air traffic con-
trol service to handle the 412
planes that were scheduled to
fly in and out for the eclipse
— the most traffic ever at the
airport.
Each pilot flying to Madras
was following a “Notice to
Airmen” that instructed them
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
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on how to safely land during
the busy time, according to
the safety board report.
Rich, who was flying in
from San Carlos, California,
was instructed to perform a
“Cove Entry,” which had him
fly north over the Cove Pali-
sades State Park toward Lake
Simtustus Resort, then con-
tinue east to the airport.
Rich checked in with air
traffic control above the state
park and was told to report his
position when he was over the
resort. Several minutes later,
after other traffic departed the
airport, the air traffic control-
ler modified Rich’s approach,
Cloudy with a little
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PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
45° 38°
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HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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OREGON FORECAST
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PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
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Kennewick Walla Walla
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Portland
Hermiston
49/47
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John Day
Eugene
Bend
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Ontario
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
52/48
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63° (1920) -12° (1968)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
49/45
Aberdeen
38/37
36/34
Tacoma
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SW 6-12
S 7-14
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SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
43/33
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Sunrise today
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or smoke. He pulled it up,’”
Halstead said. “But then I saw
the smoke plume to the south
of our location.”
The Jefferson County
Sheriff’s Office initially
reported two people had died
in the crash because the res-
ervation at the Madras Air-
port said two people would be
arriving in the plane.
Rich’s family friends said
Rich’s daughter, Michelle,
had planned to go on the trip
but was unable to.
Rich built the Wheeler
Express plane in 2002 and
would regularly take his fam-
ily on trips. He reported 612
hours of total flight time,
according to the final report.
His wife, Laura Rich, told
the safety board her husband
got his license to fly 29 years
ago and did aerobatic training
to know how to come out of
dives.
Rich had worked at Goo-
gle, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency
and Atheros, a semiconduc-
tor manufacturing company,
before recently becoming
vice president of Connected
Fleet for Airbus, his wife said.
Laura Rich described her
husband as very calm and
brilliant.
Friends and family remem-
ber Rich as a Renaissance
man, who had many inter-
ests outside of work, includ-
ing hiking, traveling and fly-
ing his Wheeler Express.
Vandals strike Elgin churches
By DICK MASON
EO Media Group
A couple of
afternoon showers
sending him to Runway 34.
Rich reported his posi-
tion, but that was the last con-
tact he made with air traffic
control.
“The controller cleared
him to land and observed a
plume of smoke shortly there-
after,” safety board investiga-
tor Zoe Keliher wrote in the
final report.
Keliher visited the crash
site on a slope of the canyon
about 1 mile from the runway.
In the final report, she wrote
the site had “freshly severed
tree limbs adjacent to the
main wreckage.”
The plane was destroyed
and the cabin was completely
consumed by fire, she wrote.
Patty Halstead, who was
playing golf near the airport
during the crash, told Keli-
her she saw the plane make its
approach to the runway when
all of a sudden it began to pull
up.
“It continued to pull up as
if it were going to make of
those loop de loop tricks that
planes make when they are in
an airshow,” Halstead said. “I
remember saying out loud,
‘No, don’t do that. You don’t
have room. You are too low to
do that.’”
Halstead watched as
Rich’s plane went behind a
tree line.
“There was a few sec-
onds from the time I lost sight
of the plane that I had time
to think, ‘OK, no explosion
ELGIN — Vandals
rocked two Elgin churches
late last week, and the Union
County Sheriff’s Office
appears to have solved the
case.
The sheriff’s office iden-
tified and located three Elgin
juveniles, ages 9, 10 and 13,
as suspects in the case, which
involves the vandalism of
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
and Harvester’s Church of
the Nazarene. Sheriff Boyd
Rasmussen said the Union
County District Attorney’s
Office is reviewing the case
for criminal charges, which
could include trespass-
ing, burglary and criminal
mischief.
Deputies Tad Butcher,
Morris Capers and Dylan
Hamilton worked the case
and tracked down the trio.
“The deputies quickly
coordinated with one another
and got resolution quickly,”
Rasmussen said Sunday.
Tips from community
members, Rasmussen said,
also were key to assisting
the deputies.
“We had
tremen-
dous coop-
eration from
the commu-
nity,” Ras-
Rasmussen
mussen said.
Deputies found evidence
in both churches the juve-
niles unsuccessfully tried to
burn some items, the sheriff
said.
Father Saji Thomas, pas-
tor of St. Mary’s Catholic
Church, 93 S. 12th St., said
a laptop was stolen, furni-
ture was overturned every-
where, numerous items
including statues and books
were tossed to the floor and
Christmas decorations were
scattered. Thomas said items
were cleaned up and put back
in order Saturday, allow-
ing mass to be celebrated
Sunday.
Thomas said the lap-
top was recovered by law
enforcement officers. Ras-
mussen said that stolen items
were found by deputies but
did not identify them.
Thomas said the youths
allegedly responsible for the
vandalism should be given
the benefit of the doubt
because of their ages.
“Forgive them for they
do not know what they have
done,” said Thomas, who
also is pastor of Our Lady of
the Valley Catholic Church,
La Grande.
At the Harvester’s Church
of the Nazarene, 1120 Birch
St., the vandals did most of
their damage by pouring
syrup and punch on the car-
pet and furniture, said Pastor
Lauri Ferring. In addition,
paper, books and other items
were dumped onto the floor.
The suspects may have
crossed the legal line just
getting into the building.
“They broke in through a
locked door,” Ferring said.
This was the second time
in the past three months the
church was the target of van-
dals, Ferring said, and the
building sustained similar
type of damage each time.
The pastor also credited
volunteers with doing an out-
standing job of cleaning up
the mess quickly, allowing
a church service to be con-
ducted Sunday.
7:36 a.m.
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