By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Authorities are blaming a plane crash near Morton last year that killed the pilot and injured a passenger and on a loose cap that deprived the engine of fuel.
The Cirrus Design Corp SR22 crashed near Morton on March 19, 2010.
The 39-year-old pilot and Rebecca Carroll were returning from a business trip in Concord, Calif, and headed to the Renton Airport but the four-seater plane lost power, and he tried to land at Strom Airport in Morton. Instead, the plane struck trees and came to rest in a rural residential area about two and a half miles from the airfield.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued a probable cause report last week.
According to the report, the aircraft had undergone an annual inspection and had three engine cylinders replaced just 11 flight hours before the accident.
The airplane was returned to service without verification all the inspected items had been completed, according to the NTSB.
Following the cylinder replacement and fuel system pressure checks, the cap on the throttle and metering assembly inlet should have been torqued, but it’s likely the cap was just installed finger tight, according to the report.
The plane crashed into the front yard of a home off state Route 508, killing the pilot, Shane Sullivan of Bellevue, according to a news report from KCPQ’ s q13fox.com.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter