Plane Entered Dive On Approach To Land

Investigators are attempting to determine what caused a single-seat Mini Max ultralight nose over and crash into a hangar during what had been a routine flight around the pattern at Fairchild Airport in Port Angeles, WA Thursday.

The pilot, 52-year-old Patrick W. Rose, was killed when the plane (file photo of type, below right) impacted an empty hangar at the airport. Witnesses told Seattle's KOMO-TV Rose was test-flying the plane for another pilot.

Another witness told the police he saw the plane take off, and watched as the plane flew in the area for some time. When the aircraft appeared to be attempting to land, the witness said that he heard the plane's engine revving at a high rate; the plane seemed to go into an uncontrolled dive, and then impacted the hangar.

Port Angeles police told the station Rose was a 27-year veteran firefighter and EMT for the City of Port Angeles Fire Department.

As the ultralight aircraft was not registered with the FAA, neither that agency nor the NTSB will be investigating the accident... but the Clallam County Coroner's office will be looking into the accident, according to KOMO.

**   Report created 7/7/2006   Record 1
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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: UNK        Make/Model: ULTR      Description:  ULTRALIGHT
  Date: 07/06/2006     Time: 1143

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

LOCATION
  City: PORT ANGELES   State: WA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ULTRALIGHT, REGISTRATION UNKNOWN, CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, THE
  ONE PERSON ON BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED, PORT ANGELES, WA

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

  Departed:                             Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: SEATTLE, WA  (NM01)                   Entry date: 07/07/2006

FMI: www.cityofpa.us/default.htm