Local plane crash injures 2

By Adam Tobias of the Daily Times staff
Monday, July 28, 2008 12:22 PM CDT

The two people inside the plane who were injured during the accident were pulled away from the crash site by airport employee Curtis Loontjer, who is pictured above. (THOMAS SCHULTZ/Daily Times)

A man and a woman were injured Saturday afternoon when the single-engine plane they were flying in crashed at Watertown Municipal Airport and eventually exploded near some hangars.

The Federal Aviation Administration is handling the accident report, and Wisconsin Aviation Inc. President Jeff Baum, who was at the airport at the time of the accident, said the crash occurred around 4 p.m. after the pilot apparently tried to abort a landing. The plane involved in the accident is a four-seat Cirrus SR-22.

“It would appear that the pilot had a problem on landing and either lost control, had a mechanical problem or something where he ran off the runway into the grass,” said Baum, who is also the manager at the local airport. “At that point he was headed toward all the airplanes that were parked on the ramp and apparently he decided to instead attempt to go around, which means to abort the landing, add the power and take off again, which in fact he did.”

Baum estimates that there were about 70 planes parked on the ramp. The Watertown Municipal Airport was busier than usual Saturday because a group of planes was visiting the area before attending the EAA AirVenture Convention in Oshkosh that starts today.

“As he (the pilot) passed over the ramp where a lot of the people were the airplane apparently stalled, and stalled does not mean the engine stalled and quit,” Baum said. “Stalled means that there was a loss of lift in the wings because of either too low of air speed or too high of an angle of bank.

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“The pilot was banking and I believe he was banking in order to make sure he avoided the terminal and ramp area, and at that point the plane stalled and dropped down to the ground,” Baum added. “He wasn't very high, and then it hit and cartwheeled and burst into flames.”

Baum said the two people inside the plane where lying on the ground next to the aircraft shortly after the accident. The married couple was pulled away from the burning plane by airport employee Curtis Loontjer, who is also a teacher at Faith Lutheran School in Watertown.

“When the crash first happened I noticed people start running toward it so I just started running toward it also to give whatever help I could,” Loontjer said. “When we got to the crash site there were a couple of our mechanics telling us to get back because there is a rocket (carrying a parachute) on board the plane. A big gust of wind blew away some smoke and that's when I saw one of the passengers on the ground and I heard her yell out for help.

“I ran around the hangars so I get to her and as I was lifting her up and carrying her away from the crash she yelled back for her husband, he raised up his hand and she said, ‘Put me down. Put me down. Go get my husband,'” Loontjer said. “So I laid her back down on the ground and went over to his side thinking I could do the same thing with him, but his injuries were a little more severe than hers so I grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him as far back as I could.”

“He is our hero,” Baum said, referring to Loontjer.

Loontjer said that two other airport employees helped him carry the two people away from the plane.

The couple was treated and taken to Watertown Memorial Hospital by the Watertown Fire Department. They were later transferred to University Hospital in Madison.

Shortly after the two people were removed from the area, a series of explosions occurred, Loontjer said. One of the explosions involved a rocket on the plane that shoots a ballistic parachute in emergency situations.

“The Cirrus has a ballistic parachute, it's one of the features of it,” Baum said. “So, if the plane did encounter difficulties somewhere en route or had an emergency, you fire this rocket that launches the parachute that will slowly lower the plane down to earth.”

Firefighter/EMT Brad Hering said he could feel the explosion from almost 100 feet away.

“With the explosion the ground shook under my feet and I was 100 feet away,” Hering said.

“It was one of those calls where you definitely wonder if you're going home after it,” he added.

Over 30 firefighters from departments in Watertown, Ixonia, Johnson Creek and Lake Mills helped fight the blaze that was caused by the crash. The fire also spread to hangars near the accident and another plane that was in the area.

No other injuries were reported.

“The emergency operation went very well considering the magnitude of the incident,” said Watertown fire Chief Henry Butts.

A representative from the Federal Aviation Administration office in Milwaukee said this morning that the names of the two people involved in the crash are not going to be released at this time.