Turbine Legend Impacted Turnpike On Tuesday

The son of a pilot killed in Tuesday in the crash of a Turbine Legend experimental aircraft near Tulsa, OK says the plane was experiencing engine problems his father was attempting to fix.

Clair Tromsness, 72, took off from Miami Municipal Airport (MIO) just before 1400 CDT Tuesday. The aircraft (file photo of type, below) impacted the center median of the Will Rogers Turnpike at mile marker 312 shortly after.

"He was only going up for an hour or two," David Tromsness told Tulsa World about his father. "The plane was having some engine problems, and he was trying to correct them."

Tromsness, who until 1980 taught speech, drama and English at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, purchased the already-completed homebuilt aircraft last year. He had flown the high-performance aircraft before, according to his wife, but he was low-time.

"He was really still trying to learn the plane," said Florence Tromsness. "He hadn’t had a chance to fly it very much, and he’d been wanting to for the last several days.

"It's been giving us trouble," she added, noting her husband had told her of problems with the plane. "It hasn’t been completely finished."

Witnesses said the plane maneuvered erratically just before the crash. Some believed the pilot was performing aerobatics.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 747CT        Make/Model: EXP       Description:  TURBINE LEGEND
  Date: 04/28/2008     Time: 1930

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

LOCATION
  City: MIAMI   State: OK   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES ONTO A HIGHWAY, THE ONE PERSON
  ON BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED, MIAMI, OK

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

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Unknown      Operation: OTHER

  FAA FSDO: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK  (SW15)             Entry date: 04/29/2008

FMI: www.faa.gov