A preliminary investigation into a plane crash that killed a Vancouver man gives little clues as to what caused it.
Lee Cheshire Leslie, 41, left Hobby Field Airport in Creswell, Ore., in a Piper PA-28 at about 4:49 p.m. April 21, and was heading north toward Pearson Field in Vancouver, according to preliminary information from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Ten minutes into the flight, radar showed the plane turning southwest before it dropped off the radar, according to the NTSB. The agency estimates that the plane crashed into the terrain near the peak of Mount Tom at about 5 p.m.
Leslie died of blunt-force trauma to his head and chest, and the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that his death was an accident.
Leslie was not a licensed pilot and did not file a flight plan, the NTSB said. The plane was registered to Sover Lince Society of Organic Agriculture, the agency said.
The crash wasn’t immediately reported, and the wreckage wasn’t found until three days later.
A concerned family member reported that Leslie was overdue the evening of April 21, and managers of airports along the plane’s flight path were called to look for the plane, said Civil Air Patrol Vice Commander Ted Tanory.
The Lane County (Ore.) Sheriff’s Office filed a missing-person report and began working with the Civil Air Patrol to find the pilot and his plane. Over the following few days, pilots flew over the area looking for damaged or burned foliage that might indicate where a plane had crashed.
A National Guard helicopter located the wreckage at about 1 p.m. April 24.
Three-stage investigation
NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said that the investigation into the crash has three stages: the on-scene phase, the fact-gathering phase and the analysis phase.
The investigation into this crash, he said, is in the second phase — which is also the longest.
Investigators are wading through aircraft maintenance records, autopsy and toxicology reports, and information on the pilot such as flight experience and medical records.
“We also go back 72 hours, paint a portrait of the pilot’s activities,” Weiss said.
Once this phase of the investigation is complete, investigators will go on to publish their findings of the probable cause for the crash.
