Ntsb Believes Missing Pilot Ditched Plane

Wed., June 19, 1996

From Staff And Wire Reports

A man whose flight club was facing a tax audit apparently crashed one of the club’s planes deliberately into Puget Sound and swam to safety, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday.

Wreckage from the Piper PA-28-161 registered to the Cavu Flying Club at Paine Field near Everett remains missing, as does the pilot, David Novak, 34, of Bellevue, the report said.

Snohomish County sheriff’s investigators previously said Novak met with a close friend on Maui three days after the plane vanished, then left the Hawaiian Islands for parts unknown.

The one-engine plane disappeared from radar screens after Novak reported an engine failure off Alki Point shortly after midnight May 31. An oil slick was found near the last radar position.

“Based on information developed to date, it is presumed that the airplane was ditched in Puget Sound and that the pilot successfully escaped the aircraft,” the federal agency’s report said.

A woman who described herself as a close friend of the pilot told investigators he was depressed when he visited her apartment about half a mile from the apparent crash site the night before the plane vanished.

He spoke of “countries you could go to without a passport” and displayed “a thick wad of bills and the top two were 50s,” said Greg Nesemeier, the board’s investigator in charge of the case.

After Novak left, the woman said, she noticed her car keys were not in their usual place and about three hours after the plane went down she noticed her car missing. It was found June 10 at a motel in Bellevue.

Deputies said Novak indicated to friends he might travel to Thailand, Vietnam or Israel.

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