A small plane and parked vehicles burn in the parking lot of Chehalis Collision Center. / Courtesy photo by Martha Harjo
Updated at 9:34 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A small plane crashed this evening into a parking lot across Interstate 5 from the Chehalis Airport, killing its pilot.
It struck two pickup trucks which caught fire, sending a column of black smoke into the sky at the scene just southeast of the Chamber of Commerce Way freeway interchange.
“All I have now is witnesses saw it took off at the airport and saw it go up and come down,” Chehalis Police Department Sgt. Gwen Carrell said. “It was a kit plane.”
The pilot’s family was at the airport when it took off, she said.
Firefighters called about 6:48 p.m. to the 900 block of Maryland Avenue were still spraying water and foam onto the vehicles more than a half hour later.
“I was just getting ready to water my flowers and I heard a big crash, kaboom,” nearby neighbor Judy Martin said. “I saw all this huge black smoke and then heard another explosion.”
Chehalis Fire Department Chief Rob Gebhart said it was only the one victim involved.
The two trucks were fully engulfed in flames, he said.
“I started putting out the fire on the pickups and kept thinking I was going to come around the corner and see a plane, but I didn’t, because there wasn’t much left,” Gebhart said.
Chehalis police were taking initial photographs and interviewing witnesses from the scene, as well as some who had been driving on the freeway. A representative with the Federal Aviation Administration is expected in the morning.
Numerous individuals from the neighborhood gathered on the sidewalk and street trying to get a glimpse of the goings on behind the chain-link fenced lot where it happened, belonging to the relatively new auto body business Chehalis Collision Center.
Wendy Cline who has lived on the corner for most of her life with a view of the small airport said she could only recall one time when a plane crashed.
“It ran off the end of the runway, I think,” Cline said. “It’s sad, it’s so sad.”
Gebhart said it was perhaps 10 years ago, when a Navy plane that came to give rides to the public crashed as it landed, because its landing gear wouldn’t come down. But nobody died, he said.
He couldn’t recall a fatal crash at the small but busy airport during his 27 years with the fire department, he said.
Firefighters and aid arrive to the scene of small plane crash in Chehalis. / Courtesy photo by Amanda Moore
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Firefighters continue to put water and foam on two trucks and what’s left of a small airplane in the parking lot of Chehalis Collision Center.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
My condolences to the family & friends of the pilot. RIP. May Jehovah give you comfort.
Nope no going back LOL
I do remember several years ago the plane that landed in the pond at the south end of the airport. Engine failure led to the crash. Mr. Gamewell died of his injuries several months later.
Uh oh the train has slipped off its track again. Folks we seem to be off base here about the last crashes. Let’s focus on this one and offer condolences to the family.
If I recall wasn’t there a crash that landed in the pond at the south end of airport and the plane was upside down in a pond there? The man drowned.
Well…a plane crash is pretty hard to forget. Especially that one, it was horrible but also an incredible act of heroism by Detective Kimsey.
“He couldn’t recall a fatal crash at the small but busy airport during his 27 years with the fire department, he said.”
What part of that wasn’t clear to you? It was based on his recollection, dummy. Learn to read.
The last part is not true, back in the late 90’s a pilot last name of Gamewell died when he wrecked at the Chehalis Airport.