Witnesses Say Wheels Down During Water Landing

An all-too-common oversight appears to be to blame for Saturday's crash of a DeHavilland DHC2 Beaver during landing on a northern Washington state lake.

KOMO-2 reports two people were killed, and three others injured, when the single-engine floatplane (type shown at right) flipped over on landing on Lake Chelan, near the remote North Cascades resort community of Stehekin.

Witnesses said the amphib's surface landing wheels were not retracted on the water landing, causing the plane to nose over into the water. Photos of the wreckage, available here, clearly show the retractable landing gear extended from the floats.

The chartered flight had taken off from the town of Chelan at 1630 PDT, and crashed about 15 minutes later.

Lost in the crash were passengers William Stifner and Roberta Pitts. The pilot, Howard Wellman, was among the injured, along with Stifner's wife Patricia, and an unidentified 16-year-old female.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 9558Q        Make/Model: DHC2      Description: DHC-2 Mk1 Beaver (U-6, L-20)
  Date: 05/17/2008     Time: 2330

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: CHELAN                      State: WA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  N9558Q, A DEHAVILLAND DHC-2MK AIRCRAFT, OPERATED BY LAKE CHELAN AIR
  SERVICE, CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, THERE WERE FIVE PERSONS ON
  BOARD, TWO WERE FATALLY INJURED, ONE SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES, CHELAN, WA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   2
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   1     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   4     Fat:   2     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Business      Phase: Unknown      Operation: OTHER

FMI: www.faa.gov