Victims Identified In Spokane Plane Crash -- Dc-3 Pilot Had Reported Trouble
SPOKANE - A tail section and portions of the wings were all that remained intact of a cargo plane that crashed and burned while trying to return to Spokane International Airport after reporting engine trouble Friday.
Lt. Clyde Ries of the Spokane County Sheriff's Department identified the victims as pilot David M. Atton, 31, of Portland, and co-pilot Ronald L. Morrison, 29, of Deer Park, Clark County.
The twin-engine DC-3 was being flown by Salair, a Spokane-based cargo airline that formerly flew from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The nine DC-3s operated by Salair at Sea-Tac were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration for five days in 1986 because of concerns about discrepancies found in aircraft-maintenance records. The discrepancies were later corrected, and the airline resumed operations.
Salair in the 1980s was believed to be the world's largest operator of pre-World War II aircraft and remained as one of the largest commercial users of the DC-3, a twin-engine transport that once was the world's most successful airliner.
About 1,000 of the estimated 11,000 DC-3s built in the 1930s and 1940s still are in use worldwide.
Salair Cargo flight 2991 was hauling second-day UPS mail and packages to Portland under contract with United Parcel Service, Salair owner Paul Salerno said in a statement.
The DC-3 was about four miles southwest of the airport when Atton reported a mechanical problem, said Mike O'Connor, an FAA regional duty officer in Seattle.
The pilot radioed the control tower that he had stopped one engine and had been cleared to land on the runway he had left minutes earlier, the FAA reported.
The plane was turning back when it crashed about 1:50 a.m. in a field about a half mile southwest of the airport, O'Connor said.
Crews from the Spokane airport fire department and a rural fire district doused the burning plane.
An investigation of the crash cause is expected to take several days to several weeks.