Pilot in fatal plane crash tried a GPS landing

GREAT FALLS – A Havre-based plane that crashed in Washington state, killing all three people aboard, clipped some trees as the pilot was attempting a second global positioning system approach to land, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.

Pilot John O. Brown Sr., 59, and passengers Randall McPherson, 59, and Christopher Schafer, 25, died in the Sept. 13 crash at Bayview-Skagit Regional Airport, about 60 miles north of Seattle. The A-36 Beechcraft Bonanza took off from Havre Airport at about 7 a.m.

The plane crashed into a dense stand of trees about four hours later, 1.5 miles northwest of the runway’s approach near Burlington, Wash., according to the report.

The cloud ceiling was 100 feet overcast and visibility was a quarter mile, said NTSB Investigator-In-Charge Orrin K. Anderson. The occupants died at the scene and the aircraft was destroyed by the crash and ensuing fire, the report states.

The plane was registered to J. Burns Brown Operating Co. and subsidiaries Santana Inc. and Textana Inc. of Havre. Brown was the owner of the oil and gas exploration companies. Company employees McPherson and Schafer were landmen, meaning they obtained leases from mineral-rights owners. A family friend previously said the men were on a fishing trip.