A SINGLE-ENGINE PLANE crashed at the Woodland State Airport on Thursday, April 21. Emergency personnel and firefighters arrived at the scene around 3 p.m. and found the plane had gone off the runway, through a chainlink fence and had struck the embankment at the end of the runway. Two victims were treated and transported to area hospitals and one man was pronounced dead at the scene.
A man who died in a plane crash at the Woodland State Airport on Thursday, April 21, was identified by the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office as 56-year-old Marc Sebastian Messina.
Clark County Fire & Rescue Spokesman Tim Dawdy said that at about 3 p.m. on April 21 there was a report of a plane that was down at the Woodland Airport. Upon arrival, emergency personnel and firefighters found a single-engine plane had gone off the end of the runway, through a chainlink fence and had struck the embankment at the end of the runway. There were three people in the plane; two victims were treated at the scene and were transported via ambulance to area hospitals, while the third victim, Messina, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dawdy said the crash is currently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Right now, we don’t really know any facts regarding what caused the crash,” Dawdy said Monday morning. “We don’t know if the plane was taking off or landing or what caused the problem. Plane crashes are just like car crashes. We are just human beings operating these crafts and sometimes there are mechanical failures or human errors. Sometimes someone makes an error in judgment. It’s the same thing that causes a car wreck, some kind of mistakes are made along the way.”
Dawdy said the Woodland Airport is a safe airport, and again reminded people that the real thing to remember is that it’s an accident like any other.
The plane, a Mooney M20K, was bound for Renton.
The plane remained in the landing strip area and did not affect Interstate 5 at all, though motorists slowing to look did cause a traffic hazard in the area, the Washington State Patrol reported.
Woodland State Airport, owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation, is east of I-5 next to the North Fork of the Lewis River. It has one paved runway, 1,953 feet long and 25 feet wide, with no hangars or other structures in the vicinity. It averages 69 takeoffs or landings per week, according to airnav.com, a website for private pilots.
Messina, the victim of the crash, co-founded CTS and leads the business team. His prior experience includes having been a General Manager for both Airborne Express and Expanets. He had an Executive MBA from the University of Washington and was a Marketing and Business Process expert leading strategic thinking in understanding and implementing technologies for a specific business need.
