Pilot in Stehekin crash was unqualified, FAA says

WENATCHEE – Documents from the Federal Aviation Administration say the pilot of a Chelan Airways float plane that crashed into Lake Chelan – killing two people, including a Spokane cardiologist – was technically not qualified for positions he held at the time, and had his license suspended for six months after the crash.

The documents, provided to the Wenatchee World under a public records request, show 62-year-old Howard “Brick” Wellman is now allowed to fly commercial planes again.

An earlier report from the National Transportation Safety Board said Wellman had disconnected warning instruments telling him the position of the plane’s landing gear. The agency said the wheels were down – protruding from the plane’s pontoons – when the plane landed and flipped on the lake at Stehekin last May 17.

Stehekin School Superintendent Roberta Pitts and William Stifter, a cardiologist from Spokane, drowned when the cabin filled with water. Wellman, Stifter’s wife and a teenage Stehekin girl survived.

The FAA documents say Wellman was not qualified to act as chief pilot or director of operations for Lake Chelan Airways.

Jeff Soehren, a co-owner of Lake Chelan Airways, told the World that the airline had applied for and believes it had been approved for a “deviation” from the requirements for chief pilot and director of operations – two management positions that require a certain level of oversight experience.