Fatal crash shocks aircraft buffs

PORTLAND – The deadly crash of a two-seater experimental airplane this week in the Willamette Valley has shocked people who build their own aircraft from kits or plans.

They consider the plane designed by an Aurora company, Van’s Aircraft, one of the most popular experimental aircraft in the U.S., saying it’s fast, versatile, fuel-efficient and relatively easy to build and fly.

“The performance is great in terms of being able to go both reasonably slow and reasonably fast and to land and take off reasonably short,” said Skip Lawson, former president of the Experimental Aircraft Association chapter in Eugene. “They’re also known as being over-engineered – they’re very strong airplanes.”

Witnesses reported that the plane, known by its model number, RV-6, lost a wing when it plowed into a field south of Scio on Monday afternoon, said Linn County Undersheriff Bruce Riley.

The plane’s owner, Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland, and his passenger, Jeff Earl “Tebo” Kropf, 45, of Halsey, died.

“I’ve never heard of a wing coming off an RV aircraft,” Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based Experimental Aircraft Association, told the Oregonian.

Carter’s plane had passed its airworthiness test and was registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, records show. Carter purchased it fairly recently, perhaps in the past year or two, said his eldest daughter, Valerie Tillia. It’s not clear whom Carter bought the plane from.

Gus Funnell of Van’s Aircraft said the crashed plane appeared to be highly modified and built from plans with custom components, not from a company kit, citing differences in fuselage, cowling and canopy. He said the motor was not the one the plane was designed for.

The accident rate for amateur-built aircraft is up to three times higher than for lightweight manufactured planes, said Loren Groff, safety analyst for the National Transportation Safety Board. The fatality rate is four times higher.

The agency said 86 people have died in RV-6s in the past two decades. Carter and Kropf were the first this year.